Northrop Grumman announced the company is gifting its James Webb Space Telescope full-scale model to the Space Foundation. With this gift, the model will be permanently displayed at Space Foundation Discovery Center in Colorado Springs.
Prior to the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021, the full-scale model traveled the world for more than a decade to raise awareness of Webb’s groundbreaking engineering and historic mission. The model’s new home, the Space Foundation Discovery Center, is a hands-on, interactive space and science center focused on inspiring, educating and preparing the next generation of explorers and innovators. It also reaches a global audience through its International Teacher Liaisons program and distant learning technologies.
As the prime contractor on Webb, Northrop Grumman led the design, development, observatory integration and prepared the observatory for launch. Today, Northrop Grumman supports Webb’s operations and maintenance as the observatory continues to discover never before seen observations of faraway stars and galaxies.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.