Thanks to a security snafu, Ace couldn't come on the grounds with us, but after some discussion, Lisa and I proceeded with our host. We were tight for time, so only saw a fraction of what there would have been to see there. EW took us first to see the assembly room where the James Webb Space Telescope is being built, then the centrifuge where they test space-based components. We then drove over to his office, where I met fellow SF writer Alan Smale. We also discovered NASA's secret stash of Doc Brown Delorean time machines while out there.
EW and Lisa Costello, at the assembly facility
Me and Alan Smale
A mission logo
The assembly building
Yes, that really is the JWST down inside all that yellow scaffolding
The spacecraft's chassis
An engineering model of one of the mirror segments
The centrifuge, a real beast
Access to the test chamber
The test chamber from an exterior view
A small, temporary clean room area within the centrifuge chamber
NASA's attic, stuff stored beneath the rotational path of the centrifuge — pretty sure the Lost Ark is in there somewhere
EW and Lisa explore the secret Delorean stash
One of the Deloreans close up
As usual, more at the Flickr set.
Photos copy; 2012, Lisa Costello and Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Lisa Costello and Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.