NASA has awarded a subcontract to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo
Beach,
Calif., to develop an ultra-cold mechanical helium cryocooler for the
Mid-Infrared Instrument on the
James Webb Space Telescope. The contract totals about $22 million.



NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is the U.S. partner in
developing the instrument,
along with a European consortium sponsored by the European Space Agency. With
a planned 2013
launch, the Webb Space Telescope will study the earliest galaxies and some of
the first stars formed
after the Big Bang. The cryocooler delivery date is 2010.

The Mid-Infrared Instrument must be cooled to 6 Kelvin (minus 449 degrees
Fahrenheit), much
colder than the planned 40 Kelvin (minus 388 Fahrenheit) temperature of the
Webb Space Telescope.
This will allow the instrument to detect room temperature heat emitted by
stars, galaxies and other
objects.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the James Webb Space
Telescope for NASA.
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
.
More information about NASA and agency missions is at http://www.nasa.gov/home .