1 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,880 NASA has just released the first pictures 2 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,120 from the new James Webb Space Telescope. 3 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:25,360 These images, 4 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:30,720 containing starlight more ancient than any ever seen before, 5 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,200 herald a new age of discovery. 6 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:36,880 It's the largest space telescope we've ever built. 7 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:40,520 We're going to make discoveries which we never anticipated. 8 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:45,600 It's one of NASA's most challenging missions since the moon landings. 9 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,480 Webb is on par with Apollo. 10 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:51,320 Just the size of it, the complexity, the reach. 11 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:57,160 The telescope will probe the furthest reaches of our universe. 12 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:00,840 But it's like Hubble on steroids. 13 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,480 Hubble opened up the deep universe for us. 14 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:08,360 Well, the James Webb Telescope is going to go even deeper. 15 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:12,000 It will look back in time to the birth of light. 16 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,400 There will be moments where we could actually look back 17 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:15,840 to the first stars. 18 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,560 Let me say that again, the first stars turning on, 19 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:22,800 that's what we're going to try to see. 20 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,080 It will explore beyond our solar system, 21 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,480 to reveal the secrets of distant planets. 22 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:31,200 This is mind-boggling. 23 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:33,160 We can actually look at these planets 24 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,600 and maybe actually find life out there. 25 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:37,560 We're going to see the universe in a whole new way 26 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:39,440 that we've never seen it before. 27 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,680 It has taken over 30 years, 28 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,920 £8 billion 29 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:49,200 and the work of over 10,000 people 30 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:53,040 to create the most advanced telescope ever built. 31 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,680 If Hubble rewrote the textbooks once, 32 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:57,920 James Webb will rewrite them again. 33 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,520 So, be ready for a brand-new universe. 34 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:17,040 Los Angeles, 26th of September, 2021. 35 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:22,240 In a secret operation, a specially designed container 36 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:25,440 carrying the James Webb Space Telescope 37 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:30,560 begins the long journey to the launch site in South America. 38 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,480 Security is tight. 39 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:43,360 The telescope is the most expensive scientific instrument ever built. 40 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,400 Waiting anxiously at a nearby harbour 41 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,880 is the man overseeing the entire Webb Space Telescope programme, 42 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:01,880 Greg Robinson. 43 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:07,200 It's been about 20 years and about $10 billion. 44 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:11,200 But the global impact that this mission is going to have... 45 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,080 It's hard to put dollars on it. 46 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:15,960 It's quite nerve-racking. 47 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:22,000 Astronomers hope this telescope will change the way 48 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,560 we view the universe. 49 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:30,120 NASA built it to fulfil a dream that began in the last century. 50 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,520 Over Christmas in 1995, 51 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,680 the astronomers in charge of the Hubble Space Telescope 52 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,400 took an extraordinary photo. 53 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:02,040 What they did is they actually looked at a piece of empty space, 54 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,680 and it was deliberately chosen to be a piece of empty space, 55 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,480 because what they wanted to do was get a really long exposure 56 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:10,120 and see what was out there. 57 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:14,240 It looked for ten whole days. 58 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,040 And when the images started to come back, 59 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,760 that tiny piece of space turned out to have lots of stars and galaxies. 60 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:25,720 It was amazing. 61 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,960 This was an image that just blew away all of us astronomers. 62 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:39,880 This was the deepest image ever, up to that time, of our universe. 63 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:45,080 The image is known as the Hubble Deep Field. 64 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:49,920 It shows about 3,000 galaxies. 65 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,000 Astronomers realised they were seeing the distant galaxies 66 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,560 as they existed a very long time ago. 67 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,440 When we look out to space, we're also looking at time. 68 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:08,880 And that's because light takes a finite time 69 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:10,800 to travel through space. 70 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,600 Light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second, 71 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,880 which is pretty incredibly fast. 72 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:18,760 It's the fastest thing we know of, 73 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,160 yet even that is finite. 74 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,080 And so it takes time for the light from the object we're looking at 75 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:25,760 to get to us. 76 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,040 Light from the most distant objects Hubble can see 77 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,120 takes around 13 billion years to reach us. 78 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,360 This means we are seeing them as they were 79 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,960 a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. 80 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,680 But that's where our observations with Hubble stop. 81 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,120 Just a little further back in time, 82 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,000 the first stars and galaxies were born. 83 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,800 It's frustrating. These objects are just out of the range 84 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:06,360 of the Hubble Space Telescope. 85 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:08,480 So even though we may be only going back, 86 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:11,160 say, half a billion years more, 87 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,440 that's when that first generation of stars turned on. 88 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,640 Astronomers desperately want to know what happened 89 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:21,960 in the early years of the universe. 90 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,280 How were the first stars and galaxies created? 91 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:32,280 We're talking about the beginning of history 92 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:34,960 and there's a natural curiosity to understand, 93 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,160 how did it all get started? 94 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:41,480 We can make all the models in the world and we can write 95 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:42,880 lots of papers and we can say, 96 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,000 well, if it's like this or if it's like that, 97 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,280 but at the end of the day, you just got to go look. 98 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:55,280 In the 1980s, before Hubble had even launched, 99 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:58,280 a small group of scientists among the staff 100 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:03,000 of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, 101 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,640 began working on ideas for its successor. 102 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:09,960 Peter Stockman was on the team. 103 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:15,040 Our director said, you know, "You need to start thinking 104 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,200 "about what the next telescope is going to be like, 105 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:19,640 "even before this one launches." 106 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,280 So we invited a bunch of astronomers and engineers 107 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,040 and people from all over NASA 108 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,000 to give talks about what they would imagine the telescope to be. 109 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,560 Ideas included a telescope on the moon 110 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,480 and several in space. 111 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:45,320 But it was the Hubble image of distant galaxies 112 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,480 that would truly shape the telescope's design. 113 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:53,560 When the Hubble Deep Field came out, 114 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:55,800 people realised, my gosh, 115 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:57,400 if we can do this with Hubble 116 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,600 and we had a telescope with even more resolution, 117 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,760 we can look way far back. 118 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:09,840 And that, really, was the target for the Webb telescope, 119 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,880 to look at the earliest formation of stars and galaxies. 120 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,640 To see the very first stars and galaxies in the universe 121 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:26,240 will require an incredibly powerful telescope. 122 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,160 It will need to be placed in space, 123 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:33,200 above the Earth's atmosphere, 124 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:36,880 which blocks most of the starlight they're trying to see. 125 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,640 And it will have to be large. 126 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:43,960 With telescopes, it's all about how big it is. 127 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,560 The bigger it is, usually the crisper the image is 128 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:48,600 and the more sensitive it is. 129 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,280 When astronomers say a big telescope, 130 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:55,960 they mean a big main mirror. 131 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,400 The larger the mirror, the more photons, 132 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,480 the more light that you collect. 133 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,440 And when you're trying to look at things that are really dim, 134 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,880 you need a really big telescope to collect more photons. 135 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:17,200 Before Webb, the largest mirror NASA had launched into space 136 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:20,520 was in the Hubble Space Telescope. 137 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:25,520 It's a solid piece of glass, 2.4 metres in diameter. 138 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:30,280 But for the James Webb Space Telescope, 139 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:34,400 astronomers want a mirror 6.5 metres across. 140 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:40,840 This is too wide to fit inside the largest rocket available. 141 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,240 In 1995, 142 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:56,760 it was a challenging problem 143 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:59,480 for the telescope's first engineer, Pierre Bely. 144 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:03,320 So, this is a school notebook, 145 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:06,920 but I used it to keep track of all the discussion 146 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:09,880 that we had and the concept. 147 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:14,160 This is the first picture of our very elementary design 148 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:18,160 of our telescope, and it's made of petals, 149 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:21,240 which are foldable like a flower, 150 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,120 so that they can be folded during launch 151 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,920 and opened up once it's in space. 152 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:39,360 By 2002, the design had evolved. 153 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:44,240 Instead of a single glass mirror, like Hubble, 154 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:49,240 Webb's engineers decided to use 18 hexagonal segments. 155 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:52,560 On the back of each one, 156 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:57,200 they will install seven motors to move the segment, 157 00:10:57,200 --> 00:10:59,400 so that all 18 can be aligned 158 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,680 to focus light like a single giant mirror. 159 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:11,240 Motors fold the mirror's sides, 160 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,840 so it fits into the rocket that will take it to space. 161 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,840 September, 2003. 162 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:27,960 Work begins building the telescope, 163 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:29,760 now named James Webb, 164 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:34,000 after the NASA director who led the 1960s race to the moon. 165 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,480 Shaping the giant segments of the largest mirror 166 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:45,040 ever sent into space is an engineering challenge. 167 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:55,360 Jay Daniel leads the team that must make them precisely the right shape. 168 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,280 The challenge is we have 18 different hexagonal segments 169 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:01,960 that form up the primary mirror. 170 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:04,560 And so you need the curve of the entire surface 171 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:07,640 to be as near perfect as possible. 172 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:12,680 The segments are made of a lightweight metal called beryllium. 173 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:16,520 To shape them, engineers had to develop new technology. 174 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,120 You see these very large machines behind me here? 175 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:26,560 These were custom-designed and built to process the James Webb mirrors. 176 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,000 The machines must polish a smooth curve. 177 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,880 Any bumps must be smaller than 1/5,000th 178 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:36,240 of the width of a human hair. 179 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 If the mirror was the size of the United States, 180 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,840 we'd be talking about bumps that were a few centimetres, 181 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:45,840 a few inches tall. 182 00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:48,000 You know, awfully smooth! 183 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:53,240 Even with eight new machines, 184 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:57,120 it takes Jay's team two-and-a-half years 185 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,080 to polish perfect surfaces on all 18 mirrors. 186 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:12,520 If they get it right, the mirrors will reflect pin-sharp images 187 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:16,400 of distant galaxies into the James Webb Space Telescope. 188 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,440 But to see deeper into space 189 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,320 and further back in time than Hubble, 190 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:30,840 the telescope also needs to detect light that Hubble can't see. 191 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:37,920 Before the launch of Webb, 192 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,960 the oldest object we'd seen is this, 193 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:44,240 Galaxy GN-z11. 194 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,000 This is just a tiny little dot of light 195 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,520 at the limit of our instruments. 196 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:56,080 And we actually found that it was 400 million years 197 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:57,960 after the Big Bang. 198 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:03,440 And, so, that means we're looking back in time 13.4 billion years, 199 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:08,640 13,400 million years of time, to see this object. 200 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:16,280 But this tantalising glimpse is as far as Hubble can see. 201 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,960 To see further, Webb must detect a type of light 202 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,200 invisible to the human eye. 203 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:30,920 That's because light from very distant galaxies 204 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,920 changes on its long journey through space. 205 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:44,000 Ever since the Big Bang, the universe has been expanding. 206 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,520 Light from the first stars has been travelling 207 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,360 through this expanding universe for billions of years. 208 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:58,120 As space expands, the wavelength of the light passing through it 209 00:14:58,120 --> 00:14:59,920 gets longer... 210 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,640 ..which means the colour of the light shifts towards the red end 211 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:07,680 of the light spectrum. 212 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,960 As the light becomes redder and redder, 213 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,360 it eventually moves from being visible 214 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,800 into the invisible infrared. 215 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,720 So, starlight that could have begun as visible light, 216 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:26,880 travelling for billions of years across the expansion 217 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,240 of the universe, it's now stretched out into infrared. 218 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,080 So, if you go into the infrared, 219 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,880 you can see many, many of these distant, long-ago objects. 220 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:47,080 To see the first stars and galaxies, the James Webb Space Telescope 221 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,320 must be able to detect that infrared light. 222 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:57,440 Although we can't see it, 223 00:15:57,440 --> 00:15:59,760 infrared light is all around us. 224 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:07,800 We can actually feel infrared light. It's a heat energy. 225 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,240 So, the sun, for instance, gives out visible light, 226 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,280 but it also gives out infrared and we can feel it on our skin. 227 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,160 So, although we can't see this light, we can feel it. 228 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:22,600 But, also, we can make sensors that can actually pick up this light, 229 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:25,360 which is very useful in astronomy. 230 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,840 This is where you can actually see things in the dark. 231 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,200 And now an entirely different universe lights up 232 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,040 because by warm, we mean basically anything with any temperature, 233 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,760 things that are incredibly cold to humans, 234 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:43,760 things that are hundreds of degrees below zero. 235 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,040 You could actually see the glow. 236 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,240 Getting an infrared telescope to work in space 237 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:55,720 is a huge challenge. 238 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:03,040 The telescope will be exposed to the full glare of the sun, 239 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:04,960 which will cause it to heat up 240 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,720 and give off its own infrared radiation. 241 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,520 This would drown out the much fainter infrared light 242 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:15,600 coming from distant galaxies. 243 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:20,840 For the telescope to work, engineers must find a way 244 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:23,160 to make it extremely cold. 245 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,040 They have one thing on their side. 246 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,480 Although the sun is hot, 247 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:35,720 space itself is cold. 248 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:40,560 Basically, you know, the universe is a giant refrigerator. 249 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:43,720 So if you put something out there and you shield it from the sun, 250 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:45,480 it's going to get cold. 251 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:51,160 The temperature of space where they will send Webb 252 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,600 is -266 Celsius. 253 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:57,280 Only seven degrees above absolute zero. 254 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:07,200 So if the Webb's engineers design a large parasol to reflect the heat 255 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,520 of the sun away, 256 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,320 temperatures on the dark side should drop dramatically. 257 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:21,040 But making this vast sunshield is one of the biggest challenges 258 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:22,520 of the whole project. 259 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:28,760 The sunshield is probably the most complex, from a design standpoint. 260 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:31,560 It has to keep one side of the telescope extremely cold, 261 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,000 pretty close to absolute zero, 262 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,440 and very warm on the other side. 263 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:44,360 The side of the shield that faces the sun will get almost as hot 264 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:46,840 as boiling water. 265 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:51,080 The cold side must remain cooler than liquid nitrogen. 266 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,800 The whole mission depends on the sunshield design working. 267 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,680 Huntsville, Alabama. 268 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:11,560 In August 2013, construction begins on the giant sunshield. 269 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,360 Mike Helba is the manufacturer's chief scientist. 270 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:24,040 The design actually is very complex. 271 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,800 It can't be just an insulating blanket. 272 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,560 Part of the design of the sunshield, 273 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,400 it allows the heat to radiate out into space. 274 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:38,480 To shade the entire telescope, 275 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,600 the sunshield will have to be enormous, 276 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,120 about the size of a tennis court. 277 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,200 To block almost all the sun's heat, 278 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:55,120 it will need to be made of five layers of reflective material, 279 00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:57,960 so heat that passes through one layer 280 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:01,400 will be reflected out the sides by the next. 281 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:07,480 The only way to get it into space is to fold it up. 282 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,640 But, once there, it will have to unfold. 283 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:21,600 The riskiest operation of the whole mission. 284 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,840 The sunshield material needs to be extremely thin 285 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:34,120 so it can be folded many times to make it small. 286 00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:38,040 But it also needs to be strong enough not to snag or tear 287 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:39,200 when it unfolds. 288 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,840 NASA uses a space-age polymer called Kapton. 289 00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:50,800 It's thinner than a human hair but almost as strong as steel. 290 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:58,240 So, that one pulled 37.9 lb. Pretty good. 291 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,800 A special pink silicone coating on the layer of the sunshield 292 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:09,520 that faces the sun will reflect about 90% of the sun's heat. 293 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:16,200 The next four layers must reflect the remaining heat out of the sides. 294 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,000 This way, all five layers should progressively cool 295 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,080 the telescope. 296 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,080 To direct the heat out of the sides, 297 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,800 the sunshield layers must be closer together in the middle 298 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:32,160 than at the edges. 299 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:42,120 This means that each layer must have a slightly different shape. 300 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,240 The material comes in rolls that are about four foot wide. 301 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,360 So we cut them to shape on our cutting table. 302 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:56,840 And they're seamed together into the shape of the sunshield. 303 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,840 You have to be careful, because it's thin. It can tear. 304 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,760 The membrane pieces are cut flat. 305 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,920 But they're designed so that when they're welded together, they take 306 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:10,960 on a three-dimensional shape. 307 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:19,440 The team spends the next three years manufacturing all five layers 308 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:20,600 of the sunshield. 309 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,320 Cooled to its operating temperature, 310 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:35,320 the James Webb Telescope will allow astronomers to explore 311 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,360 the mysterious time that lies beyond the reach of Hubble. 312 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,200 LOUD BANG 313 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:49,240 It's a time that starts a few hundred million years 314 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:50,600 after the Big Bang. 315 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:56,960 You get the Big Bang, and the universe then cools 316 00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:58,280 for quite a while. 317 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,600 And from a scientist's perspective, it's really boring. 318 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,840 There's nothing to see, because light doesn't get out. 319 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,120 And then something changes. 320 00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:11,760 Parts of the universe are able to cool enough 321 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:17,920 that matter is able to condense and form the first stars. 322 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:28,320 Approximately 13.6 billion years ago, 323 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,000 out of the darkness came light. 324 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,960 But no-one knows exactly how those first stars were born. 325 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:46,840 In the dark, cooling universe, the only elements that existed 326 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:50,120 were those formed in the Big Bang. 327 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:54,360 Hydrogen, helium and a small amount of lithium. 328 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:01,600 The scientists' working theory is that giant clouds of these gases 329 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:06,560 collapsed under their own gravity to create the first stars. 330 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,280 But no-one has seen them. 331 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,440 They weren't stars like we know stars. 332 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,480 Stars have evolved over time. 333 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,480 These early stars were made out of the matter 334 00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,600 that was around in the universe, and that was mainly 335 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,080 hydrogen and helium. 336 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,160 From our understanding they were huge, 337 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,960 maybe 100 times the mass of our sun. 338 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:35,240 We think those were probably pretty big stars and we think they probably 339 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,520 didn't last very long, that they were very bright 340 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,480 and then blew themselves up very quickly. 341 00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:48,040 Astrophysicists think the intense temperatures and pressures 342 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:53,280 inside the first stars transformed hydrogen and helium into a host 343 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,120 of new chemical elements. 344 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:03,160 When the stars died, their powerful supernova explosions created 345 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,600 even more elements. 346 00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:12,600 From these first stars came the materials to build planets, 347 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:14,640 including the Earth. 348 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:24,280 The chemistry of the universe hasn't changed much since that first era. 349 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,640 So what that means is that pretty much everything around us happened 350 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:29,040 right at the start. 351 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:36,000 There must have been this incredibly intense era of star formation, maybe 352 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,560 giant stars, everything blowing up. 353 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,800 That's what we're looking for. 354 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,080 Think about how profound that is. 355 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,320 With the James Webb Space Telescope, 356 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,920 we're seeing the first stars come to light, 357 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,200 that initial creation 358 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,080 of the elements that lead to things like life. 359 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,560 Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, California. 360 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:21,040 Here, in a vast clean room, engineers are attempting to unfold 361 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:22,680 a prototype sunshield. 362 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:31,240 No-one has ever unfolded a telescope in space before. 363 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:35,480 It makes this one of NASA's most ambitious missions 364 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,120 since the moon landings. 365 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:42,960 Webb is on par with Apollo, just the size of it, the complexity, 366 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,000 the reach, scope and so on. 367 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,520 We do a lot of complex, hard missions, and this one is certainly 368 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,200 at the top of that list of complexity. 369 00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000 The engineering team must find a way to unfold the vast sunshield 370 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,640 in space without humans touching it. 371 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,120 Their plan is to use a remote-controlled system 372 00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:14,680 of intricate cables, motors and pulleys. 373 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,560 You know, you're going to need to tension it with some form of cables, 374 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:23,000 cos this has to start off soft and foldable and then pull 375 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,040 to a taut, you know, tension kind of thing. 376 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,960 They've managed to make it work on Earth. 377 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,360 But in space it will be a high-risk operation. 378 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:44,040 And the risk is even greater because of where they will position Webb. 379 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,840 They will send the telescope to a location known as the second 380 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:58,480 Lagrange point, a gravitational sweet spot that helps hold 381 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,480 the spacecraft in position. 382 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:09,280 Here, it will travel around the sun at the same speed as the Earth 383 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:10,640 in a special orbit. 384 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:19,480 In this orbit, the heat from the sun, Earth and moon 385 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:24,360 always hits the telescope on the same side and can be blocked 386 00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:26,240 with the giant sunshield. 387 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,040 But this position is extremely remote, 388 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:35,240 four times further away from the Earth than the moon. 389 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,160 Too far to send a repair mission if anything goes wrong. 390 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:45,920 It's going to be very stressful when we do an on-orbit, 391 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,280 cos it's away from us, cos we can't touch it, right, 392 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,920 cos we can only command the motors. 393 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,040 It's quite nerve-racking, yes. 394 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,120 Webb would be a million miles away. 395 00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:00,960 So it's pretty far out there for humans with our current capability. 396 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,200 It's not designed for repair. 397 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,880 The team building the James Webb Space Telescope only has one chance 398 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:17,160 to get it right. 399 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,320 It's an £8 billion roll of the dice. 400 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:33,920 September 2012. 401 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:37,880 The first mirror segments arrive 402 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,880 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 403 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,520 The polished mirrors have all been coated in a thin layer of gold, 404 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,880 to better reflect infrared light. 405 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:03,080 When all the mirrors have arrived, a robot arm fits them to the carbon 406 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,280 composite frame that will hold them together. 407 00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:15,200 After a two-month operation, workers fix the final mirror into place. 408 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:23,640 In February 2016, 409 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:29,440 the six-and-a-half-metre-wide primary mirror is finally complete. 410 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:47,720 This large, high-precision mirror will revolutionise our view 411 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:48,960 of the universe. 412 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:55,640 With it, Webb may even detect life on another world. 413 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:10,200 Planets outside our solar system are known as exoplanets. 414 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:18,920 Exoplanets excite our imagination because life forms like ourselves 415 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:20,040 live on planets. 416 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,960 And one of the biggest questions we have is, are we alone 417 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:26,160 in the universe? 418 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,920 Well, pondering the question is one thing. 419 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:35,480 Making direct observations and getting a real answer is another. 420 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:42,760 Despite discovering over 5,000 exoplanets, scientists know 421 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:44,560 very little about them. 422 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:50,720 To this date, all we know is a rough idea of the size and the mass 423 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,600 and how close it is to the star. 424 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,720 We don't know whether there are clouds or oceans, whether there's 425 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,320 an environment that would be friendly to life. 426 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:05,040 All we can give you are the most rudimentary specs of that planet. 427 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,960 If there is life on a planet out there, there is a way Webb 428 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:12,160 could detect it. 429 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:19,320 As the planet goes in front of the star, a tiny amount 430 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:23,800 of the starlight will pass through the atmosphere of the planet. 431 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:29,480 Webb is fitted with instruments that can analyse that light. 432 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,800 Atmospheres are like a thin rubber band stretched around a basketball. 433 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:37,840 They're very, very thin. 434 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,680 But we can actually get enough data to analyse what chemicals 435 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,320 are in that atmosphere. 436 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:50,040 We're entering an age where we can say, "This planet has water, 437 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,880 "this planet has methane, this planet has a temperature 438 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:55,760 "very similar to ours." 439 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,160 It could even be something as profound as we can detect 440 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,040 the presence of plant life, chlorophyll. 441 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:06,200 What if we detect a planet that has pollution? 442 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:10,960 What if we detect some sign of industrial activity, technology? 443 00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,800 That's going to get a lot deeper. 444 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:16,760 We might be on the cusp of saying that there are other beings 445 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:19,680 up there that might be looking back at us. 446 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,320 With the sunshield and mirror sections of Webb complete, 447 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,160 engineers must put them through a battery of tests to make 448 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,760 sure the telescope can survive the extreme conditions of launch. 449 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,080 One of the toughest is the vibration test. 450 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,680 When a rocket launches, it's violently shaking, right, 451 00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:54,600 cos this explosion is occurring in it. 452 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:59,040 So we actually put our vehicle on a table here and we shake 453 00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:00,320 it like the rocket. 454 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,720 You know, it's a bit scary to think, you know, you're not trying 455 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:10,480 to break it, you're trying to prove it works. 456 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:14,000 But, you know, when you go - and I've watched us do the vibration 457 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,400 test, and all of a sudden you see your vehicle shaking, 458 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,000 you know, like... But you know it's designed for that, 459 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,560 so to watch the vibration test is, you know, you've got to kind 460 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,520 of hold your breath a little bit. 461 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:34,600 To enable the telescope to survive the violent launch, every part 462 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:39,800 of it that unfolds must be securely pinned down so it won't shake loose. 463 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:48,840 Once in space, these pin-down mechanisms must release 464 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:51,000 or the telescope won't unfold. 465 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:58,320 The sunshield alone has 107 mechanisms 466 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:02,440 and all 107 are required to make this thing work. 467 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,800 These critical release mechanisms are manufactured 468 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,000 here in Moorpark, California. 469 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:18,320 The whole mission depends on these tiny parts operating 470 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:19,680 without a glitch. 471 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,160 Krystal Puga is the engineer responsible for ensuring 472 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:26,840 that they will all work. 473 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,200 James Webb is a brand-new system. 474 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:33,760 It's a complex design. It's new. 475 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,400 It's not like anything that's ever been done before. 476 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:43,560 To make sure the giant sunshield won't shake loose and become 477 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:45,760 tangled during launch, 478 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:51,840 it is pierced with over 1,000 precisely placed holes. 479 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,160 When folded up into its stowed position, 480 00:35:55,160 --> 00:36:01,200 the holes align on top of each other so the sunshield can be held 481 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:07,040 in place with pins and the 107 release mechanisms. 482 00:36:10,720 --> 00:36:13,960 When we fold up the sunshield membrane, we actually fold 483 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:15,320 it accordion-style. 484 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,440 So at any one location, you can have 70 layers of membrane 485 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:21,720 all folded up. 486 00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:23,880 There's holes in every single one of the layers. 487 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,400 They're all aligned so that you can stick a pin through the entire 488 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:28,840 stack of membranes. 489 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:31,640 We use a membrane release device... 490 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,120 ..to hold the entire sunshield together. 491 00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:39,400 So, we'll take this specially designed pin 492 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,920 and go through the entire stack of the sunshield membranes. 493 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:49,720 To protect the folded sunshield, spring-loaded covers 494 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:51,320 are unrolled over it... 495 00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:57,840 ..and attached to the release devices. 496 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:04,160 We want everything to be nice and stowed so that it doesn't get 497 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:07,240 damaged during the launch, and so that it can unfold 498 00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:11,040 in the correct sequence when we deploy it in space. 499 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:13,640 To release the sunshield, 500 00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:18,160 everything inside each release mechanism must work without a hitch. 501 00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:24,000 Engineers will send an electric current that melts a fuse... 502 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,680 ..that uncoils a spring... 503 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:29,360 ..that splits a nut... 504 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:31,320 ..that frees the pin... 505 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,840 ..that unfastens the spring-rolled cover... 506 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,480 ..that releases the sunshield. 507 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:55,760 All 107 release mechanisms must work for the covers to roll back. 508 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,640 If just one fails, the sunshield won't unfold 509 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:05,720 and the telescope won't work. 510 00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:12,040 Over 30 years of effort will have all been for nothing. 511 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,240 What we're going to do to ensure that every single one of them 512 00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:22,800 actuates properly is test, test, test. 513 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,080 Today, Krystal and the team are preparing to test one 514 00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:32,320 of the mechanisms to check that it quickly releases the pin. 515 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:35,480 Countdown. Ready? 516 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,240 Three, two, one. 517 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:39,240 Fire! 518 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,320 The test measures how long it takes to melt the fuse. 519 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:54,200 So, it looks like the fuse of our burn time here is around 17.6 520 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,440 milliseconds, which is well below the maximum. Well below the required, yeah. 521 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:06,800 They have tested over 1,500 release mechanisms to be as sure 522 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:11,680 as they can that the ones they fit to the telescope will work 523 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,200 when it reaches space. 524 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,600 At the very end of the day, all you can do is hope 525 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,800 that everything works out well. 526 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,120 We have one shot to make this right. 527 00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,760 It's got to work. It's got to work. 528 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:34,640 March 2021. 529 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,360 ECHOEY SHOUT: How do we look on the left side? 530 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:43,360 In the clean room in Los Angeles, technicians fold up the completed 531 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,440 telescope ready for launch. 532 00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:52,160 When you stow Webb for the last time on Earth, you're setting, 533 00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:56,160 really, the condition in which it's kind of determined, its probability 534 00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:57,320 of success in orbit. 535 00:39:57,320 --> 00:39:59,440 It's as simple as that. 536 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:03,120 Top of the list of things to do 537 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,920 on the world's most expensive camera - 538 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:08,360 remember to remove the lens cap. 539 00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:16,480 The folding takes a long time, about a month. 540 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,800 It is critical if you think about folding up a parachute, right? 541 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,720 And then you have to go jump out of a plane. 542 00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:26,040 So it has to be very meticulous. 543 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:41,160 After carefully folding the telescope, 544 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:45,160 the team encases it in its purpose-built container 545 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,680 to keep its pristine mirrors clean 546 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:50,000 on the journey to the launch site 547 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:51,240 in South America. 548 00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,280 I'm in the space industry for 32 years, 549 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:58,560 12 of them on Webb, right? 550 00:40:58,560 --> 00:40:59,840 So a third of my career. 551 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,120 So when the vehicle left, 552 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:07,000 it really felt like when my daughters left to go to school, 553 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,400 you're proud. You want them to go on. 554 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,160 It's kind of their step to be out on their own. 555 00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:13,760 But at the same time, 556 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:15,280 you're already missing them, right? 557 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,160 The day that they leave, you're like, 558 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,880 "Oh, are they going to be OK," right, "on their own?" 559 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:30,240 From Los Angeles... 560 00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:33,480 ..a ship designed to transport rocket parts 561 00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,320 carries the James Webb Space Telescope 562 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:38,320 on a 16-day journey 563 00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:41,800 to its launch site in French Guiana. 564 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,200 October 2021. 565 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,360 The European Space Agency's Kourou Spaceport. 566 00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:04,800 Over the next two months, 567 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,760 engineers prepare the telescope for launch. 568 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:13,080 They run final checks to ensure its systems have survived the journey... 569 00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:20,440 ..and fill it with the fuel that it will use to maintain its orbit. 570 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,720 Then they lower it into the nose of an Ariane 5 rocket. 571 00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:43,760 Baltimore, Maryland. 572 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:46,200 Mission Control for the telescope 573 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,440 once it's in space. 574 00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:54,960 Carl Starr waits to take command of the spacecraft 575 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,200 30 minutes after liftoff. 576 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,240 I'm the Mission Operations Manager - or the Mom. 577 00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:03,880 So, everybody just calls me Mom. 578 00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:05,800 That's me. 579 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,760 All stations, this is Mom on ops. All stations, this is Mom on ops. 580 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:11,960 Copy that, Mom. 581 00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:16,480 Carl will be responsible for unfolding the telescope in space. 582 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:21,160 What's challenging is, it's just never been done before. 583 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,720 I always tell people my "aha!" moments. 584 00:43:24,720 --> 00:43:26,040 We launch and we don't blow up. 585 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,640 That's a good one. I'm good there. 586 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,600 That'll be a big relief. 587 00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:33,360 Two, we separate from the launch vehicle. 588 00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:35,920 At that point, I know we've got a chance, 589 00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:37,760 because I can't control the launch vehicle. 590 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:39,640 There's nothing against the launch vehicle - 591 00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:42,080 it's a reliable, great launch vehicle, don't get me wrong - 592 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:45,200 but I have nothing to do with it. I can't control it. Nothing. 593 00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,760 But the moment we separate from there, 594 00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:49,080 now we've got a chance. 595 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,000 We've done over 70 rehearsals. 596 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:52,560 We know this vehicle. 597 00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:58,440 It has taken £8 billion, 598 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,360 18 years 599 00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:04,040 and over 100 million hours of people's time to build. 600 00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:07,360 Now, 601 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,320 on Christmas Day 2021, 602 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:13,680 the James Webb Space Telescope is ready for launch. 603 00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,040 All this work, time and money 604 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,120 sits on top of 669 tonnes 605 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,520 of explosive rocket fuel. 606 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:31,960 Ready to go. 607 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,920 I go through the same thing every launch. 608 00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,040 As you get close to the pad 609 00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:39,880 and certainly close to countdown, 610 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,120 the butterflies are just churning. 611 00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:45,840 Une minute. 612 00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:49,280 All right. 613 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,720 CHATTER 614 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:59,840 COUNTS DOWN IN FRENCH 615 00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,040 And we have engine start. 616 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:13,400 And liftoff. 617 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:14,520 Decollage. 618 00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:17,240 "Decollage." Liftoff from a tropical rainforest 619 00:45:17,240 --> 00:45:19,120 to the edge of time itself, 620 00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:22,640 James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe. 621 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,640 27 minutes after liftoff... 622 00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:40,000 ..Ariane sends Webb on its month-long journey 623 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:41,920 to its orbiting position - 624 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,600 one and a half million kilometres away. 625 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:03,000 The team at the launch site have done their job. 626 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,440 Zero five three is complete - 627 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,080 separated from the launch vehicle. 628 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:12,040 Now it rests on the shoulders of Carl Starr 629 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,760 and the team at the telescope's control hub in Baltimore 630 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,360 to unfold Webb in space. 631 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,960 Deployments start on day three 632 00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:26,560 and that continues for a good ten-plus days. 633 00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:31,280 The team begins by deploying the pallets 634 00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:32,880 that hold the sunshield. 635 00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:35,960 It was very exciting, I must say. 636 00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:37,440 There was a lot of tension. 637 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:39,560 The pallets came down very easily. 638 00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:41,360 The operation went as planned. 639 00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:42,880 It was really smooth. 640 00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:48,400 Five days after launch, 641 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,400 it's time for the most challenging operation - 642 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:53,840 unfolding the giant sunshield. 643 00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,680 They must start by rolling back the covers. 644 00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:04,360 This is the critical moment 645 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,640 when all 107 release devices must work. 646 00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:12,920 The membrane release devices. 647 00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,560 We fired the whole string, and... 648 00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:19,400 ..that's when we realised 649 00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:21,040 that we had a problem. 650 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,600 If all the release devices fire correctly, 651 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:33,840 the cover will roll back 652 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:35,480 and trigger switches 653 00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,720 on the edge of the pallet. 654 00:47:37,720 --> 00:47:41,720 The switches send a signal to Mission Control, 655 00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:45,320 telling them that the cover has rolled back. 656 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,720 But what happened is we didn't see that. 657 00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:50,880 We never saw the switches activate, 658 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:52,320 so we stopped. 659 00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:55,040 We're not getting it. 660 00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,400 So the next thing is to fire it again. 661 00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:01,040 So we fired again and... 662 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:03,600 ..it didn't work. 663 00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:08,760 It looks like there may be a problem with the release devices. 664 00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,640 Maybe not all of them fired, 665 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,200 maybe not all of them actually released. 666 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:18,960 It was very serious. 667 00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,240 I'm not sure how to describe it but, again, it got very quiet 668 00:48:22,240 --> 00:48:24,800 and people became very solemn. 669 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:31,320 The team fears they have lost the telescope. 670 00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,800 So after a good day, day-and-a-half or so, 671 00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:38,520 we realised that we'd already tried everything, electrically, 672 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:40,280 we could do, mechanically... 673 00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:45,320 ..and then it was a thermal engineer 674 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:46,760 that came to the rescue 675 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,040 and he said, "I'm seeing these temperatures 676 00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,920 "and I'm telling you, the only way that you can get those temperatures 677 00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:53,360 "is if there's nothing in the way. 678 00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:55,080 "So, therefore, it must have unrolled. 679 00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,080 "It just didn't hit the switch." 680 00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:00,600 When they told us that... 681 00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:04,080 ..the looks on everybody's faces, the relief. 682 00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,840 And from that moment on, we just never looked back. 683 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:13,600 They can now unfold the giant sunshield. 684 00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:17,880 Inside the telescopic poles, 685 00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:21,360 electric motors start pushing out the mid booms. 686 00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:33,080 Now eight motors pulling on 90 cables, 687 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:35,520 running over 400 pulleys, 688 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:38,360 separate the sunshield's five layers. 689 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:45,080 Mom, I can confirm that all five layers of the sunshield 690 00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:47,080 are fully tensioned. 691 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:51,960 Thank you. 692 00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:54,920 Significant milestone accomplished. 693 00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:57,760 Job well done, Sunshield Team. Job well done. 694 00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:04,800 11 days after launch, the team deploys the secondary mirror... 695 00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:13,480 ..then moves the first wing of the primary mirror into position. 696 00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,200 Two weeks after launch, 697 00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:21,840 they start the final deployment - 698 00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,320 unfolding the mirror's second wing. 699 00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:28,360 The wing comes out pretty quick... 700 00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:32,920 ..but then a series of latching manoeuvres, 701 00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:36,720 to establish a load on that tight fit, has to occur. 702 00:50:36,720 --> 00:50:38,080 3,000. 703 00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:41,120 2,000. 704 00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:44,360 1,000. 705 00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:50,520 And we have a fully deployed JWST. 706 00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:54,800 CHEERING 707 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,280 The telescope is finally fully unfolded. 708 00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,240 30 days after launch, 709 00:51:25,240 --> 00:51:28,240 the James Webb telescope fires a thruster... 710 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,120 ..and moves into its operational orbit. 711 00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:43,520 Over the next few months, as it cools to its operating temperature, 712 00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:46,920 optical engineers line up and focus the mirrors. 713 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:53,640 When the mirrors are first deployed, 714 00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:58,120 they could be off by almost a millimetre from one another. 715 00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:00,160 And we need to align them, ultimately, 716 00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:03,880 as though they're a single mirror where, from one mirror to the next, 717 00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:06,320 the surface is aligned to each other 718 00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:08,640 to a fraction of a wavelength of light, 719 00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,560 about 1/5,000th of a human hair. 720 00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:17,840 The seven motors on the back of each mirror 721 00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:19,880 will push and pull them into shape. 722 00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,720 So we point it at a bright, isolated star, and the first thing we got 723 00:52:25,720 --> 00:52:27,920 were 18 separate spots, 724 00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:30,440 one for each of the primary mirror segments, 725 00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:33,480 because they hadn't been aligned at all. 726 00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,120 So that was the very first thing we saw. 727 00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:39,320 And eventually we were able to identify which spot 728 00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:41,920 was with which mirror segment. 729 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:45,320 And then we were able to align those into a nice, little array. 730 00:52:47,680 --> 00:52:52,160 The 18 spots of light are all images of the same star. 731 00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:58,640 Engineers make microscopic movements of Webb's mirrors... 732 00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:01,760 ..to bring the spots together... 733 00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:05,160 ..to form a single image. 734 00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:17,080 With the telescope fully aligned, 735 00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:20,440 astronomers start taking the first science images. 736 00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:24,440 So it looks like we've got new data 737 00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:26,440 and I'm opening the files now 738 00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:27,480 to get a look. 739 00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:31,640 Science visuals developer Joe DePasquale 740 00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:34,440 will turn the raw black-and-white images 741 00:53:34,440 --> 00:53:36,280 into colour pictures. 742 00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:37,840 That is so amazingly sharp. 743 00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:42,680 To do this, he borrows a technique used on Hubble. 744 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,600 Instead of using a colour camera, 745 00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:51,080 Webb takes a sequence of black-and-white photos 746 00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:53,480 through different coloured filters. 747 00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:59,680 Each filter lets through different wavelengths of infrared light. 748 00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:05,280 The three black-and-white photos 749 00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:08,080 are coloured red, green and blue... 750 00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:12,360 ..and then combined to produce a colour image. 751 00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:21,120 In June 2022, 752 00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,880 scientists gather to see the Webb telescope's 753 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:26,600 first image of distant galaxies. 754 00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:30,680 This is a full-colour draft image 755 00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:33,200 that uses all of the available filters. 756 00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:37,400 OK, let's observe the universe come into focus. 757 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,480 Oh. That's amazing. 758 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:50,400 Thank you. 759 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:51,800 Fantastic. 760 00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:53,640 We look at this whole faint... 761 00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:56,440 There's all this extra faint diffuse structure coming in. 762 00:54:56,440 --> 00:54:58,920 There's a sort of a trail of stars coming at you 763 00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:01,120 and there's this whole loop coming out here. 764 00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:02,680 See that galaxy there? 765 00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,480 I mean, that's a faint galaxy that you couldn't see with Hubble. 766 00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:12,480 Straight out of the box, 767 00:55:12,480 --> 00:55:15,360 Webb is making new discoveries. 768 00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:18,960 Oh, my God. It's... It's mind-blowing. 769 00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:25,120 The team of experts spotted types of galaxies we hadn't seen before, 770 00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:29,440 and the sharpness we have with Webb was just unbelievable. 771 00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:31,400 It blew my expectations. 772 00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:37,320 Do we think this is the deepest image ever taken of the universe? 773 00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:42,160 It's by far the deepest. By far the deepest at those wavelengths. 774 00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:47,000 In this photo, 775 00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,720 taken with an exposure of just 12 hours, 776 00:55:50,720 --> 00:55:54,680 Webb is already seeing further back in time than Hubble. 777 00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:03,880 In the near future, scientists will be doing even deeper fields. 778 00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:07,160 But right now, at this moment, I think it's the deepest one 779 00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:08,920 anybody has done so far. 780 00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:17,200 In July 2022, 781 00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:20,480 NASA releases the first images 782 00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:22,240 from the James Webb Space Telescope. 783 00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,880 This is a really big moment for astronomy 784 00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:34,800 and it's a big moment for the world. 785 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:37,960 This image of the Southern Ring Nebula 786 00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:40,440 captures the dying moments of a star 787 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,520 around 2,000 light years away. 788 00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:49,160 This view of part of the Carina Nebula 789 00:56:49,160 --> 00:56:51,400 shows the intense radiation 790 00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:53,400 of newborn stars 791 00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,720 carving away the nebula's wall of dust and gas. 792 00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:02,240 It will help shape our understanding of how stars form and grow. 793 00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:11,960 These pictures are just the start. 794 00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:16,640 For years to come, scientists will study images from Webb 795 00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:22,080 to learn about the origins and the far reaches of the universe. 796 00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:30,240 I fully expect that the data will not only be scientifically 797 00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:32,920 really important, 798 00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:36,560 but will be compelling and awe-inspiring, 799 00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:40,040 and help folks feel connected 800 00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:42,440 to the universe that they're a part of. 801 00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,840 We're going to see the universe in a whole new way 802 00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,040 that we've never seen it before. 803 00:57:49,040 --> 00:57:50,520 And when we do that, 804 00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:52,400 who knows what we'll discover? 805 00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:53,960 So it is a very exciting time. 806 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:03,320 I've been following the development of James Webb since I was in school. 807 00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:05,960 I can never even remember a time in my life 808 00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:08,920 where I didn't want to be exploring 809 00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:12,640 and understanding our solar system and the universe - 810 00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:15,280 so it really is a lifelong dream. 811 00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:20,960 Every time you build a new instrument, 812 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:22,720 you discover new stuff. 813 00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:25,680 And so I trust this is going to happen. 814 00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:30,720 We have to be bold. 815 00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:32,800 In order to get that bold science, 816 00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:35,200 we had to build a bold telescope. 817 00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,280 It couldn't have been a better mission 818 00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:42,320 so I'm quite proud to be on it, no doubt about it. 819 00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:47,600 It has taken over 30 years of imagination... 820 00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:50,680 ..invention... 821 00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:52,680 ..and sheer perseverance... 822 00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:58,360 ..to enable the world to finally see the first images... 823 00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:01,920 ..from the James Webb Space Telescope.