NASA Announces Contract for Next Generation Space Telescope Named After Space Pioneer

NGST design as proposed by TRW/Ball Aerospace team. Credit: TRW/Ball Aerospace

NASA this week selected TRW, Redondo Beach, Calif., to build a next-generation successor to the Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the man who led NASA in the early days of the fledgling aerospace agency.

The space-based observatory will be known as the James Webb Space Telescope, named after James E. Webb, NASA's second administrator. While Webb is best known for leading Apollo and a series of lunar exploration programs that landed the first humans on the Moon, he also initiated a vigorous space science program, responsible for more than 75 launches during his tenure, including America's first interplanetary explorers.

Goddard manages the James Webb Space Telescope for the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters. The program has a number of industry, academic and government partners, as well as the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

For the complete article on the TRW NGST contract, visit: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020806ngst.html