NASA Picks Contractor to Chill Space Telescope Instrument (Forwarded)

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Jane Platt (818) 354-0880
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Erica Hupp (202) 358-1237
NASA Headquarters, Washington

April 6, 2006

News Release: 2006-050

NASA Picks Contractor to Chill Space Telescope Instrument

NASA has awarded a subcontract to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo Beach, Calif., to develop an ultra-cold mechanical helium cryocooler for the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The contract totals about $22 million.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is the U.S. partner in developing the instrument, along with a European consortium sponsored by the European Space Agency. With a planned 2013 launch, the Webb Space Telescope will study the earliest galaxies and some of the first stars formed after the Big Bang. The cryocooler delivery date is 2010.

The Mid-Infrared Instrument must be cooled to 6 Kelvin (minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit), much colder than the planned 40 Kelvin (minus 388 Fahrenheit) temperature of the Webb Space Telescope. This will allow the instrument to detect room temperature heat emitted by stars, galaxies and other objects.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
More information about NASA and agency missions is at
http://www.nasa.gov/home/
.

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