NASA Turns Old Spy Tech Into a New Window on the Universe

NASA turns old spy tech into a new window on the universe

NASA launched its $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, sending a new observatory into space to study dark matter and dark energy.

The mirror inside NASA's Roman telescope was donated by America's spy satellite agency and reground to look outward instead of down

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope carries a coronagraph designed to directly image exoplanets in visible light for the first time. What it actually promises is smaller, and more interesting, than the headlines suggest. The post The mirror inside NASA’s Roman telescope was donated by America’s spy satellite agency and reground to look outward instead of down appeared first on Direct Message News.

The $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope was built around a mirror the U.S. intelligence community no longer needed — a Hubble-sized spy-satellite optic that had been sitting unused in storage until NASA realised it could transform its next great observatory.

Roman launched with a Hubble-sized primary mirror inherited from the U.S. intelligence community. The hardware gave NASA a head start, but transforming it into a $4.316 billion infrared observatory took far more than pointing a spare spy telescope toward deep space.