In-orbit commissioning of the NIRSpec instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled for launch in 2018, promises to revolutionize observational astronomy, due to its unprecedented sensitivity at near and mid-infrared wavelengths. Following launch, a similar to 6 month long commissioning campaign aims to verify the observatory performance. A key element in this campaign is the verification and early calibration of the four JWST science instruments, one of which is the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). This paper summarizes the objectives of the NIRSpec commissioning campaign, and outlines the sequence of activities needed to achieve these objectives.