NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is more like Shrek than you think

NASA is pumping out updates about the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope that was recently launched.

Yesterday the space agency dropped an update about how it would be approaching the extremely complex and fragile unfolding process of the next-generation space telescope, and now NASA has provided the public with an update on the sunshield unfolding process. The tennis court-size sunshield will protect the observatory from harmful rays from the Sun.

The space agency recently reported on Twitter that the Webb team has completed tightening the first three of five layers of the sunshield, writing "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers." And so does our sunshield!". NASA wrote on its blog that these first three layers of the sunshield are the closest to the Sun and that tensioning the final two layers is currently scheduled for tomorrow.

Read more: NASA drops update on James Webb Space Telescope unfolding

"The membrane tensioning phase of sunshield deployment is especially challenging because there are complex interactions between the structures, the tensioning mechanisms, the cables and the membranes. This was the hardest part to test on the ground, so it feels awesome to have everything go so well today. The Northrop and NASA team is doing great work, and we look forward to tensioning the remaining layers," said James Cooper, NASA's Webb sunshield manager, based at Goddard Space Flight Center.

If you are interested in reading about how NASA is approaching Webb's unfolding process, check it out here.