Download the report to NASA recommending addition or optimization of the James Webb Space Telescope capabilities to maximize astrobiology science return.

Astrophysics in the Next Decade:
JWST and Concurrent Facilities

JWST can be yours... years before launch!
Available at http://www.jwstinlego.com.

John Mather visits the Webb Science and Operations Center

As the Webb project reaches its peak development years, the Webb Science and Operations Center (S&OC) at the STScI is ramping up its development of the ground system for commissioning and science operations. John Mather, the NASA Senior Project Scientist for JWST, visited the Institute on December 5 2007 to meet the S&OC staff. He was treated to an overview of the ground system and several prototype demonstrations including selection of NIRSpec apertures for multi-object spectroscopy and on-board scripts actually running the observation.

After John’s colloquium presentation, From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and on to James Webb Space Telescope, he enjoyed dinner with the Director and senior staff from the STScI and the JHU physics and astronomy department and their 2007 Brickwedde speaker, David Gross (U.C. Santa Barbara).

This Northrop Grumman SPIE article describes the selected architecture, its expected performance and the plans for integration and testing. Even though many details in the design have changed since this article was written, many of the design choices and procedures are still valid.