Launch and DEPLOYMENT
There’s a perfect spot in space for an infrared telescope, and Webb is heading there
DID YOU KNOW? Other spacecraft to occupy the L2 point have included the ESA’s Planck, Herschel and Gaia telescopes
A key feature of Webb’s design is that it has a ‘cold side’ and a ‘hot side’. The cold side is the one that does the observing, while the hot side carries the spacecraft’s solar panels and an antenna for two-way communication with Earth. But this arrangement only works if the Sun and Earth are always in the same direction from the spacecraft’s point of view.