The primary mirror of the observatory gathers light from its
targets, reflecting those rays onto a secondary mirror in front
of it. That secondary mirror then bounces the light through a
hole in the primary mirror and ultimately onto the sensors of
the telescope's scientific instruments. With a primary mirror 21
feet 4 inches wide, the Webb is capable of peering at the first
galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang, ones now more than
13 billion light years away. No mirror this large has ever been
launched into space before--it will be folded like a drop-leaf
table so that it can fit into a rocket, and then open up after
launch. The telescope is named after James E. Webb , who served
as the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968. Under his
direction, NASA took on a great challenge: fulfilling President
Kennedy's pledge to land Americans on the moon by the decade's
end.