Pathfinder Backplane
The structure that arrived at NASA Goddard in July 2014 from Northrop Grumman is the center section of the James Webb Space Telescope pathfinder (or test) backplane. Here it is at Northrop Grumman before shipment, shown with the secondary mirror booms fully extended. If you can imagine this structure upright, the primary mirror segments would lie on the latticed part of the struture - and the secondary mirror would sit at the end of the long booms.
The structure is at NASA Goddard so that spare mirrors can be mounted on it. Then it will go to NASA Johnson for cryogenic testing.
Credit: Northrop Grumman/Alex Evers
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Taken on June 13, 2014