This is a rather long (at 53 minutes) video, but it has some fascinating bits of information about the heat shield deployed by the James Webb Space Telescope. This video focuses on how to precisely measure the dimensions of the heat shield, so that other scientists could model the properties of the shield in diffusing heat away from the delicate instruments in and on the telescope. Really cool tech used to take these measurements, including a laser with a spinning mirror that could blind you fairly quick.
I last mentioned the Webb earlier this year in a post connecting some dots across time. This telescope was in development for, um, a while and this YouTube video was shot across almost a decade-long time period. Six years were spent measuring this heat shield! Not the same one over and over, of course, but different variations as they iterated on its design.
If you don’t watch the whole thing, at least flip to the end where Dustin’s dad sees the telescope launched into space. Great moment.