– When I am asked what keeps me awake at night, it is the sun protection, said Bill Ochs, project manager at James Webb, before the operation began, reports AFP.

The sun visor, as big as a tennis court, has five layers that were unfolded one by one for two days.

James Webb, named after a former head of Nasa, will replace the Hubble Space Telescope but, unlike its predecessor, will not be in orbit around the earth – but the sun. The new telescope will be parked in orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

The telescope will be able to power observations in a much larger part of the infrared light spectrum, compared to its predecessor Hubble. The resolution will be higher and thus the researchers can look forward to new information about the first stars and galaxies.