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The telescope, like its mission, is big. When expanded to full size, it can’t fit into the nose cone of any available launch vehicle. One of Webb’s main components, sunshield, is the area of a tennis court. It was carefully folded and packed to fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket. In space, the sunshield will expand and separate into five distinct layers. The telescope's primary mirror, the largest mirror ever flown into space, is also too wide to fit into the rocket in one piece. So it is segmented into 18 hexagonal pieces on a hinged structure so it can fold up for launch and unfold in space.
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The telescope, like its mission, is big. When expanded to full size, it can’t fit into the nose cone of any available launch vehicle. One of Webb’s main components, sunshield, is the area of a tennis court. It was carefully folded and packed to fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket. In space, the sunshield will expand and separate into five distinct layers. The telescope's primary mirror, the largest mirror ever flown into space, is also too wide to fit into the rocket in one piece. So it is segmented into 18 hexagonal pieces on a hinged structure so it can fold up for launch and unfold in space.

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