NASA's Webb Telescope team prepares for earsplitting acoustic test

Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the environmental portion of vibration testing and prepared for the acoustic test on the telescope.

Engineers and technicians pushed the telescope (wrapped in a clean tent) through a large set of insulated steel doors nearly a foot thick into the Acoustic Test Chamber, where the telescope will be exposed to the earsplitting noise (and resulting vibration) of launch. These photos show the telescope outside (left) and inside (right) the acoustics chamber.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.