Keith Parrish was the Commissioning and Observatory Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Parrish’s involvement with Webb spanned two decades, also serving as the Thermal Systems Manager and Sunshield Manager. In these roles, he led the team responsible for Webb’s cryogenic thermal architecture and oversaw NASA’s technology efforts for the large deployable Sunshield.  Parrish has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park (1989) and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from George Washington University (1995).

2023 ACS Fall POLY: CME NASA Symposium Abstract

Cryogenic Materials Development for the James Webb Space Telescope’s Lage Deployable Sunshield

Two weeks after launching on December 25, 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope completed an unprecedented number of complex deployments to unfurl its large five-layer Sunshield. The Sunshield is the key assembly in providing the passive cryogenic cooling of Webb’s telescope and scientific instrument suite to super-cold temperatures below 50 Kelvin. Materials development for the Sunshield was one of Webb’s major efforts and mission-enabling technologies. These development activities are presented, along with on-orbit flight performance.