NASA announced Monday the selection of industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, the first mission that would directly image Earth-like planets around stars like our Sun and study the chemical composition of their atmospheres for signs of life. This flagship space telescope also would enable wide-ranging studies of the universe and support future human exploration of Mars, the solar system, and beyond.
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is exactly the kind of bold, forward-leaning science that only NASA can undertake, said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Humanity is waiting for the breakthroughs this mission is capable of achieving and the questions it could help us answer about life in the universe. We intend to move with urgency and expedite timelines to the greatest extent possible to bring these discoveries to the world.
To achieve its science goals, the Habitable Worlds Observatory would need a stable optical system that moves no more than the width of an atom while it conducts observations. The mission also would require a coronagraph, an instrument that blocks the light of a star to better see its orbiting planets, thousands of times more capable than any space coronagraph ever built. The observatory would be designed to allow servicing in space to extend its lifetime and strengthen its scientific output over time.
To further the readiness of these technologies, NASA has selected proposals for three-year, fixed-price contracts from Astroscale U.S. Inc. of Denver; BAE Systems Space and Mission Systems, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado; Busek Co. Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts; L3 Harris Technologies Inc. of Rochester, New York; Lockheed Martin Inc. of Palo Alto, California; Northrop Grumman Inc. of Redondo Beach, California; and Zecoat Co. Inc. of Granite City, Illinois.
Are we alone in the universe is an audacious question to answer, but one that our nation is poised to pursue, said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. With the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA will chart new frontiers for humanity’s exploration of the cosmos. Awards like these are a critical component of the agency’s incubator program for future missions, combining government leadership with commercial innovation to make what is impossible today rapidly implementable in the future.
The newly selected proposals build on previous industry involvement that began in 2017 under NASA’s System-Level Segmented Telescope Design solicitations and continued with awards for large space telescope technologies in 2024. These proposals will help inform NASA’s approach to planning for the Habitable Worlds Observatory as the agency builds on technologies and lessons learned from the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
More information about NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory is available at https://nasa.gov/hwo
