NASA's Webb Telescope Components Meet ’Big Red’ "Big Red" isn't
a golden retriever or a NASA engineer, it's the nickname for a
small chamber that helps ensure equipment can withstand very
cold temperatures that would be experienced in space. This photo
shows engineers in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., placing the MCA (monitor and
calibration assembly) into Big Red. In the photo, the MCA is the
object under the silver-colored blanketing in Big Red. The MCA
is a key piece of the larger Optical Telescope Element (OTE)
Simulator or OSIM. The OSIM simulates the James Webb Space
Telescope’s optics for the purposes of testing the science
instruments that will fly on the observatory. The OSIM itself
will never fly into space, but it is a vital part of the testing
program to verify that the science cameras and spectrographs
will function as planned. The actual telescope optics assembly,
known as the Optical Telescope Element or OTE, is the eye of the
Webb telescope observatory. T