The Flight of the "Bumblebee" - The Upcoming Launch of James Webb Telescope with John Durning

In this podcast Melanie Boylan spoke to John Durning, who is the Deputy Project Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope Project, based out of Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md.

We hear the who, what, why, where and when this incredible technological feat is launched into space.  

John has over 35 years of technical and project management experience in the defense and aerospace sectors, over 30 of those with NASA. He has worked extensively on programs with international partnerships with Asia and Europe. His experiences include management of instrument developments for planetary, space science and earth science missions, spacecraft/observatory development for both earth and space science missions and overall project management. John’s experience also covers all phases of development from early concept and architecture development, hardware design, fabrication and testing and launch phase. These experiences included direct management of technical and resource teams and management of contractor lead developments.

For the last 14+ years John has held a senior management position on the James Webb Space Telescope Project– most recently as the Deputy Project Manager.

James Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.