Specialized bearings made by Timken Co. will help the James Webb Space Telescope communicate with Earth. The next generation telescope is set to launch next year.

JACKSON TWP. Timken Co. has been part of U.S. space exploration programs from the beginning, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the company has bearings on the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA plans to launch its next generation space telescope sometime in 2021. It will serve as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in orbit since 1990 and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was retired earlier this year.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built and launched, according to NASA's website. Scientists believe the telescope will collect data that could fundamentally alter how humans understand the universe.

NASA has partnered on the project with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Northrop Grumman is the primary industrial partner.

Timken provided bearings for a critical position on the telescope, said Wayne Denny, general manager for global strategic marketing in aerospace and defense.

Steel duplex precision ball bearings will help to turn and pinpoint a communications antenna toward Earth. The antenna will transmit information collected by the telescope back to Earth .

The bearings one is 3 1/2 inches wide and the other is 2 inches wide will help the antenna precisely lock on its target before it transmits, Denny said.

"There's no room for recovery and repair in space flight," he said. "It has to work right."

Denny grew up south of Alliance and has been with Timken 28 years. Most of his Timken career has involved work in aerospace. He trained as a physicist, and is excited to work on the Webb project.

The images and discoveries made by the Hubble telescope "have been just amazing," Denny said.

The James Webb Space Telescope is larger and will be positioned to gather more information.

"I'm looking forward to the first images that come off it," Denny said. "It's a great, exciting tool that will help us with discovery."

The Hubble Telescope orbits the Earth, but the James Webb will travel roughly 930,000 miles and be in an orbit around the sun.

Because it will be flying deeper into space, the telescope will be positioned to look at galaxies farther away. Scientists hope to collect information about some of the oldest formations in the universe, and possibly improve our understanding of creation of the universe and galaxies.

The distance also factors into the bearing design, Denny said. Timken needed a steel and a lubricant that could tolerate extreme temperature changes.

"There's nothing common about space flight bearings," Denny said.

Link:

Timken has spot on NASAs next space telescope - The-review