Shortly after 9:00 a.m. EST today, engineering teams began the process of extending Webb’s Deployable Tower Assembly (DTA). When deployed, the DTA will create space between the spacecraft and the telescope, to allow for better thermal isolation and provide room for the sunshield to deploy.
This deployment is expected to take six or more hours. It is a human-controlled process that provides the team with the flexibility to pause, assess the data, and make adjustments as needed.