UCL flies with JWST

News

The UK's largest university space research group has secured contracts to supply equipment for the James Webb Space Telescope, and to test equipment for ESA’s Gaia star-mapping mission.

The

's largest university space research group has secured contracts to supply equipment for the

(JWST), and to test equipment for the

Gaia star-mapping mission.

For the JWST mission, the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is already providing Astrium Germany with the onboard calibration system for the Near Infra-red Spectrometer, and its latest orders are for two different sets of ground calibration equipment for the same instrument.

MSSL will also be working with Astrium France to test the 174 sets of electronics and special Charge Coupled Device detectors for the Gaia mission, bringing the total of MSSL's current orders for the two missions to over €6M.

The laboratory has been working closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) and European space industry to develop critical parts of instruments for JWST and Gaia. The successful bids follow several years of technology studies, funded by ESA contracts and the UK’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).

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