NASA has awarded a subcontract to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo Beach, Calif., to develop an ultra-cold mechanical helium cryocooler for an instrument aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Mid-Infrared Instrument must be cooled to 6 Kelvin (minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit). Under the $22 million contract, Northrop Grumman is scheduled to deliver the cryocooler in 2010.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is the U.S. partner in developing the instrument, along with a European consortium sponsored by the European Space Agency. The Webb Space Telescope, which will study the earliest galaxies and some of the first stars formed after the Big Bang, is scheduled to launch in 2013.