A Northrop Grumman Corp. team completed a series of tests that proved a key element of NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can function in space, the company announced May 15.

A series of 26 tests on the telescope’s sunshield membrane, a five-layer structure about the size of a tennis court, were started in 1999 and completed in late 2005, Northrop Grumman said. The tests measured the performance of the membrane and its coatings and simulated conditions at the L2 Lagrange point nearly 1 million miles from Earth, where the telescope will operate. The sunshield will block solar light and keep the observatory operating at cryogenic temperatures, enabling its infrared sensors to see distant galaxies, early stars, planetary systems and help astronomers better understand dark matter.

Northrop Grumman is prime contractor for JWST and leads the telescope’s overall system design and development effort under contract to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2013.