Two-dimensional microshutter arrays are being developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) for use in the near-infrared region. Functioning as object selection devices, the microshutter arrays are designed for the transmission of light with high efficiency and high contrast. The NGST environment requires cryogenic operation at 45K. Arrays are close-packed silicon nitride membranes with a pixel size of 100 X 100 micrometers . Individual shutters are patterned with a torsion flexure permitting shutters to open 90 degrees with a minimized mechanical stress concentration. The mechanical shutter arrays are fabricated with MEMS technologies. The processing includes a RIE front-etch to form shutters out of the nitride membrane, an anisotropic back-etch for wafer thinning, and a deep RIE (DRIE) back-etch down to the nitride shutter membrane to form frames and to relieve shutters from the silicon substrate. Two approaches for shutter actuation have been developed. Shutters are actuated using either a combined mechanical and electrostatic force or a combined magnetic and electrostatic force. A CMOS circuit embedded in the frame between shutters allows programmable shutter selection for the first approach. A control of row and column electrodes fulfills shutter selection for the second approach.