What’s being called “the world’s most powerful telescope” was made possible with the help of a Jackson State University alum.

WLBT reports Douglas Williams helped launch the James Webb Space Telescope named after former NASA administrator James E. Webb. The groundbreaking optical instrument caught the attention of the 26-year-old in high school.

“It was all over YouTube, and it was mentioned in a few television documentaries. From that moment, I found myself eager to learn more about the advanced capabilities and engineering going into the first space deployable telescope ever to be sent into space,” said Williams, according to WLBT.

Douglas Williams later attended Northop Grumman for orientation. Here, the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) alum was informed the company was working on building a telescope. The manager informed Williams he could view the telescope from the observation deck, but he had no idea it would be one of science’s most ambitious projects.

“She didn’t mention it was Webb. Out of curiosity, I walked over and opened the door, and, to my surprise, Webb was staring right back at me. I pretty much spent most of my lunches going to the viewing room from then on,” Williams said, according to WLBT.

An engineer’s dream, Douglas Williams was asked to hop on board to work alignments on the James Webb Space Telescope. With no hesitation, Williams worked at Northrop Grumman for three years. During this time, Williams worked alongside a team of over 100 engineers to advance the James Webb Space Telescope’s test and on-earth mechanical deployment procedures, utilize metrology to keep deployments for internal stresses, or in the case of an earthquake, and align the telescope’s high-gain antenna used to send and receive signals to and from Earth.

“Being one of the new members on the team, I appreciated getting to learn on such an impactful project,” Douglas Williams said, the outlet reports.

Douglas Williams

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