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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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The James Webb
Space Telescope will

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be a million miles from Earth.

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Right now, there are
no plans for astronauts

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to actually go and fix it.

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So what happens if
something goes wrong?

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So what exactly are you folks
doing right now to make sure

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that the James Webb
does work properly?

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Well, the electronics
that we build

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are an advanced version
of the actual electronics

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that will be on the spacecraft.

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So we actually test them on
the ground before they launch.

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So that, once we
launch, we can actually

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simulate any problem that might
happen once the spacecraft is

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actually deployed in space.

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So a simulator like
a game simulator?

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Yeah.

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It's actually a lot
like a game simulator,

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maybe with not as much
visuals as you're used to.

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But we actually
have a lot of data

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that will be floating by on the
screen that indicates things

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like the temperature of the
spacecraft, what direction it's

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pointing, whether
the antennas are

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communicating back and forth
to Earth, things like that.

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Electronics that we
will be testing actually

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is located underneath in the
spacecraft compartment there.

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And that is responsible for
sending all the data down

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to Earth and back up to Earth
controlling the satellite.

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Hi, Alicia.

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Hi.

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So what are you doing here?

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I am looking at data from
a simulated spacecraft

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of the observatory.

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So this is our system,
our ground system

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that we use to
look at telemetry,

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send commands to
the actual vehicle,

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and do our real-time assessment
of its health and safety.

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So basically, in
a nutshell, it's

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like you're getting the
pulse or the vital signs

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for the instrument.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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This pretty much is
our eyes into what's

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going on on the satellite.

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And we determine, by looking
at all of this information,

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are we safe?

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And what do we need
to do to get it safe?

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So as you can see,
a lot of work is

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being done right now
to make sure engineers

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on the ground keep the James
Webb Space Telescope up

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and running throughout
its lifetime.

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Thanks for joining us
for another edition

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of Behind The Webb.

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