It includes a framework of hexagonal sections (the center section plus two “wings”) that hold the observatory’s 18 primary mirror segments - plus a backplane support frame (BSF) that holds Webb’s integrated science instrument module (ISIM). The backplane was designed and produced by Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Structures business unit at its facilities in Utah. It supports not only Webb’s enormous mirror and complex telescope optics but also the observatory’s entire ensemble of critical instruments. This engineering marvel, the Primary Mirror Backplane Assembly (aka “the backplane”) functions as Webb’s spine. Achieving the impossible called for the development of one of the lightest, strongest and most thermally stable structures ever produced.

In order for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) to successfully capture vivid images of the universe that no one has seen before, Northrop Grumman developed transformative technology to ensure that the telescope will hold perfectly steady at extreme temperatures. But what if you’re trying to build humankind’s most powerful space telescope – one that must survive the intense heat of launch and the extreme cold of space, all without giving an inch? Actually, without expanding or contracting even a few tens of nanometers, or about 1/10,000 the width of a human hair? Sometimes, you’ve got to bend the rules.

Heat makes things expand and cold makes them contract that’s the basic rule of thumb we all learned in high school physics.

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