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16 September 2026 4:45PM-6:00PM MT
Abstract: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched on December 25, 2021, is NASA’s successor mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. JWST has been designed and developed to observe “first light” objects in the nascent universe, the evolution of galaxies over cosmic history, star birth within our own galaxy, planet formation and evolution both in our solar system and in solar systems around other stars and to make detailed observations of some of the recently discovered exoplanets.
The JWST telescope has an aperture greater than 6 meters in diameter, and along with its compliment of science instruments must be cooled to cryogenic temperatures below 50K. It will be operated at the Sun-Earth L2 point to keep thermal sources such as the Sun and Earth in the same general direction so that their radiation can be shielded by a “tennis court sized” sunshield, allowing the payload to attain these temperatures passively.
This presentation will give an overview of the Systems Engineering of the JWST mission, its challenges and some of the major lessons learned from it.
Speaker: Mr. Menzel has 44 years of experience in aerospace, working 23 years in industry for commercial and defense missions and for NASA for the past 21 years. Before his retirement from NASA in April of 2025, he was the NASA Mission Systems Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope and the Habitable World Observatory. Mr. Menzel received a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and an M.S. in Physics from Columbia University in 1986.
He began his career in 1981 with the RCA Astro Space Division in East Windsor, N.J. as an antenna engineer, designing flight antennas for commercial and defense communications and remote sensing satellites. In 1990 he took a position in the Systems Engineering Group of the General Electric Astro Space Division designing commercial, DOD and civil space systems. In 1995 he took a position as Director of Systems Engineering in the Orbital Sciences Corporation, and in 1997 he took a position as the Deputy Program Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Group at Lockheed Martin.
Mr. Menzel began working on the Pre-Phase studies for the Next Generation Space Telescope in 1998, and in June of 2004 he took his current position as the NASA Mission Systems Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope. In 2024, Mr. Menzel was also named as the NASA Mission Systems Engineer for the next NASA flagship mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, that will be designed to detect “earth-like” planets around other stars.
Mr. Menzel has been the recipient of the Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award for Engineering in 2009, the NASA Systems Engineering Excellence Award in 2010, the Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis Division Engineering Excellence Award in 2013, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2013 and 2023, the 2020 Robert H. Goddard Merit Award in 2020, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2022, the NASA Systems Engineering Excellence Award in 2022, the Norman L. Baker Astronautics Engineer Award in 2023, AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award in 2023 and finally the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal for Systems Engineering in 2025.
In addition to his various engineering positions, Mr. Menzel has also served as an adjunct lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at various colleges. His hobbies include weightlifting, bicycling and amateur astronomy.
To REGISTER, please contact: [email protected] to request the meeting invitation.