The James Webb Space Telescope, one of the most expensive objects launched into space, is functioning, transmitting data and opening new horizons for us, able to look where other telescopes have not had time: close to the Big Bang, close to the moment of the formation of the first stars and the first galaxies in the universe. But now that James Webb is up and running, what will be the next big telescope launched by NASA? It’s called the Nancy Grace Rome Space Telescope, and its primary mirror once belonged to a spy satellite that never made it into orbit and was part of the costliest failure of the United States spy agencies (or so the rumor goes).

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. That is, in the hold of the space shuttle, and it is no accident that the satellite fit perfectly inside the space shuttle. The telescope’s mirror is 2.4 meters and its diameter is 4.2 meters, which means that its launch requires a hold almost 5 meters in diameter to house the satellite’s fixation systems. It is also no coincidence that today the protective cone at the top of the Delta IV Heavy rocket also has a diameter of 5 meters.

In the late 1970s, when NASA began development of the space shuttle, it immediately realized that it would require huge costs, so it turned its attention to a sector whose pockets have always been full of money in the United States: the Department of Defense, meaning both the military and intelligence services. NASA promised that the Space Shuttle would be so versatile and launch so often that all other rockets would soon be useless, so it made a deal with the Department of Defense: Tell us the specifications you want for satellites. espionage and we will do it. build a space shuttle so we can launch those satellites and you’ll never need another rocket.

Obviously that didn’t happen, the Atlas and Delta rockets continued to launch spy satellites, but the space shuttle also had some missions that are classified. The Ministry of Defense used KH-11 (also known as KENNEN, CRYSTAL or Keyhole) spy satellites in those years, used to observe the surface of the Earth. And for this, the corresponding satellites had a mirror with a diameter of 2.4 meters. Yes, they were very similar to the Hubble Space Telescope, but they were aimed at enemy territory, not distant stars and galaxies. So it was no problem for the Space Shuttle to launch the Hubble Space Telescope because it already had a hold ready for such payloads and sizes.

In 2012, NASA received an unexpected gift from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a spy agency founded in 1961 but so secret that its existence was not officially recognized until 1992: two space telescopes that were built to become satellites- spies, but which were never launched again. That’s because the program they were in was canceled after spending $25 billion over 20 years.

So the telescopes arrived at NASA, but without the electronic part and with one condition: that they should not be pointed at Earth. So NASA immediately found a use for one of them: its mirror, similar to the Hubble mirror, as I said, will be the main mirror of a telescope that will search for exoplanets and continue the mission of the European Euclid Telescope (recently launched). , trying to unravel the mystery of matter and dark energy that dominates the universe and baffles astrophysicists.

Rome’s Nancy Grace Space Telescope (originally named WFIRST, an acronym for Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope) will be launched in 3-4 years by a Falcon Heavy rocket and, like the James Webb, will be located at the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange Point.

NASA has not decided what it will do with the second telescope received from NRO, as it does not yet have the funds needed to design the mission, launch and operate the telescope. One popular idea would be to send it into Mars orbit to map the surface of Mars, especially since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars probe that today sends images of the surface of Mars, has been in orbit around Mars. The Red Planet since 2006. The NRO’s condition was that the telescope should not be pointed at Earth, but the NRO did not object to the telescope being pointed at Mars.

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