The OTE serves as the eye of the telescope observatory, collecting light to create sharp images of deep space and light from atmospheres of exoplanets never seen before. The ISIM holds the four science instruments that will gather light delivered by the telescope and produce images and spectra.
Webb is the largest space telescope ever built — two-and-a-half times larger in diameter and six times larger in area than the Hubble Space Telescope.
An L3Harris team and hundreds of engineers and scientists have worked on the Webb telescope to form an international consortium of NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, 300 universities, organizations and companies in 29 U.S. states and 14 countries.
L3Harris is also building the optical telescope for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will study dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. The company is also supporting NASA Orion’s first crewed flight, and designing and building the engineering development unit telescopes for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which will demonstrate the ability to measure gravitational waves in space.
