Modernization of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Chamber: A Payload Transport Rail System to Support Cryogenic Vacuum Optical Testing of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Abstract: NASA is the mission lead for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the next of the “Great Observatories”, scheduled for launch in 2018. It is directly responsible for the integration and test (I&T) program that will culminate in an end-to-end cryo vacuum optical test of the flight telescope and instrument module in Chamber A at NASA Johnson Space Center. Historic Chamber A is the largest thermal vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center and one of the largest space simulation chambers in the wo…