[MUSIC PLAYING] The James Webb Space Telescope will be a million miles from Earth. Right now, there are no plans for astronauts to actually go and fix it. So what happens if something goes wrong? 

So what exactly are you folks doing right now to make sure that the James Webb does work properly? 

Well, the electronics that we build are an advanced version of the actual electronics that will be on the spacecraft. So we actually test them on the ground before they launch. So that, once we launch, we can actually simulate any problem that might happen once the spacecraft is actually deployed in space. 

So a simulator like a game simulator? 

Yeah. It's actually a lot like a game simulator, maybe with not as much visuals as you're used to. But we actually have a lot of data that will be floating by on the screen that indicates things like the temperature of the spacecraft, what direction it's pointing, whether the antennas are communicating back and forth to Earth, things like that. 

Electronics that we will be testing actually is located underneath in the spacecraft compartment there. And that is responsible for sending all the data down to Earth and back up to Earth controlling the satellite. 

Hi, Alicia. 

Hi. 

So what are you doing here? 

I am looking at data from a simulated spacecraft of the observatory. So this is our system, our ground system that we use to look at telemetry, send commands to the actual vehicle, and do our real-time assessment of its health and safety. 

So basically, in a nutshell, it's like you're getting the pulse or the vital signs for the instrument. 

Absolutely. Absolutely. This pretty much is our eyes into what's going on on the satellite. And we determine, by looking at all of this information, are we safe? And what do we need to do to get it safe? 

So as you can see, a lot of work is being done right now to make sure engineers on the ground keep the James Webb Space Telescope up and running throughout its lifetime. Thanks for joining us for another edition of Behind The Webb.