NASA selects industry teams to advance Habitable Worlds Observatory technologies

NASA announced Monday it has selected industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, a flagship space telescope that would aim to directly image Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars and study their atmospheres for signs of life.

The selected proposals are three-year, fixed-price contracts awarded to Astroscale U.S. Inc. (Denver); BAE Systems Space and Mission Systems, Inc. (Boulder, Colorado); Busek Co. Inc. (Natick, Massachusetts); L3Harris Technologies Inc. (Rochester, New York); Lockheed Martin Inc. (Palo Alto, California); Northrop Grumman Inc.

(Redondo Beach, California); and Zecoat Co. Inc. (Granite City, Illinois). NASA said the mission would require a stable optical system that moves no more than the width of an atom during observations, a coronagraph thousands of times more capable than any flown before, and a design that allows servicing in space.

“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.

Key Topics

Science, Habitable Worlds Observatory, Nasa, Coronagraph, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman