Innovation
Supporting the Largest-Ever Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most complex space telescope ever constructed. NASA designed it to fold like an origami flower to fit it in the rocket that will launch it into space.
Timken® bearings are part of the pointing mechanism that positions the antennae and maintains the data link between the telescope and earth, enabling humankind to glimpse Webb’s incredible discoveries.
Check out the Webb Telescope mission overview.
From space flight to commercial flight, Timken delivers performance.
See more examples here.
Photo credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
This image has not been altered.
Last Updated: 2023/10/5
Published: 2020/03/9
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Deep Space Made Visible, With Help from Timken
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)
Since the Webb Telescope launched in December 2021, NASA scientists have stayed in close touch, sending commands and receiving images and data from points in space never before seen by human eyes.
That communication is possible thanks to the Deep Space Network (DSN) — a complex of antennas and personnel in California, Australia and Spain — together with two antennas on Webb itself. NASA schedulers collaborate with other mission planners up to six months in advance to reserve time for daily rendezvous between the DSN and Webb. It’s no simple process.
What is simple — thanks to the Timken® bearings in the biaxial gimbal assembly supporting the downlink antenna — is pointing it directly at the DSN complex and holding the position for the two to six hours it takes to download the day’s bounty.