A space telescope is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971. Space telescopes avoid several problems caused by the atmosphere, including the absorption or scattering of certain wavelengths of light, obstruction by clouds, and distortions due to atmospheric refraction such as twinkling. Space telescopes can also observe dim objects during the daytime, and they avoid light pollution which ground-based observatories encounter. They are divided into two types: Satellites which map the entire sky, and satellites which focus on selected astronomical objects or parts of the sky and beyond. Space telescopes are distinct from Earth imaging satellites, which point toward Earth for satellite imaging, applied for weather analysis, espionage, and other types of information gathering.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft.
Venkataraman Radhakrishnan was an Indian space scientist and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences member. He retired from his career as professor emeritus of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, of which he had previously been director from 1972 to 1994 and which is named after his father. He served on various committees in various capacities including as the vice president of the International Astronomical Union during 1988–1994. He was also a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.
Nancy Grace Roman was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program".
Heidi B. Hammel is a planetary astronomer who has extensively studied Neptune and Uranus. She was part of the team imaging Neptune from Voyager 2 in 1989. She led the team using the Hubble Space Telescope to view Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact with Jupiter in 1994. She has used the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope to study Uranus and Neptune, discovering new information about dark spots, planetary storms and Uranus' rings. In 2002, she was selected as an interdisciplinary scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Rodger Evans Doxsey was an American physicist and astronomer who made major contributions to the scientific and operational success of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). He joined the HST Project at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1981, and was head of the Hubble Missions Office when he died in 2009.
Wendy Laurel Freedman is a Canadian-American astronomer, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant, and as director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile. She is now the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology, focusing on measuring both the current and past expansion rates of the universe, and on characterizing the nature of dark energy.
Charles Mattias ("Matt") Mountain is currently the President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) which designs, builds, and operates telescopes and observatories for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). AURA's NASA center is the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), responsible for the science mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, the science and operations for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the MAST data archive. AURA's NSF centers are Gemini Observatory, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), and the National Solar Observatory (NSO). Dr. Mountain and AURA are also responsible for the NSF construction projects: the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on Haleakalā, Hawaii and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) on Cerro Pachón in Chile.
Laura Ferrarese is a researcher in space science at the National Research Council of Canada. Her primary work has been performed using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
Stefi Baum is an American astronomer. The American Astronomical Society honored her work by awarding her the Annie J. Cannon Prize in 1993. Baum helped to develop the Hubble Space Telescope and, starting in 2004, was the director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.
Padi Boyd is an American astrophysicist. She is the head of NASA's Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory and an Associate Director at the Goddard Space Flight Center. She is the project scientist for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission.
Rita M. Sambruna Commander OMRI (Hon) is an Italian-American astrophysicist and is the Deputy Director of the Astrophysics Science Division at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center. From September 2022 to May 2023, she was the Acting Deputy Director of the Science Exploration Directorate at Goddard. Rita held the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University in 2000-2005.
Anne L. Kinney is an American space scientist and educator. Kinney is currently the Deputy Center Director at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Previously, she held positions as the head of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Chief Scientist of the W.M. Keck Observatory, Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Director of the Origins Program at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Director of the Universe Division at NASA Headquarters. She earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in astrophysics from New York University, and has published more than 80 papers on extragalactic astronomy. She was an instrument scientist for the Faint Object Spectrograph that flew on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Amber Nicole Straughn is an American astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where she serves as the deputy project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, responsible for science communications. Her research focuses on interacting and star-forming galaxies in the context of galaxy assembly. She is also the associate director of the Astrophysics Science Division.
John T. Clarke is a professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. Clarke is best known for his Hubble Space Telescope observations of the aurora on Jupiter and Saturn, as well as over 260 papers in refereed journals, including every planet except Mercury and the interplanetary medium. Clarke's research is focussed on vacuum ultraviolet instrumentation and observations of planetary atmospheres. At present this includes primarily observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, overseeing the echelle channel on the MAVEN IUVS instrument orbiting Mars, and as Deputy-PI for the upcoming GLIDE mission to image the Earth's geocorona.
Jane Rebecca Rigby is an American astrophysicist who works at the Goddard Space Flight Center and is Senior Project Scientist of the James Webb Space Telescope. She was selected one of Nature's 10 Ones to Watch in 2021 and Shape 2022. In 2024 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.
Jennifer Mae Lotz is an American astronomer who studies the shape and evolution of galaxies, including galaxy mergers. She works at the NOIRLab, a project of the National Science Foundation, as director of the Gemini Observatory.
Charles Robert O'Dell is an American observational astronomer and the founding Project Scientist of the Hubble Space Telescope. He is currently the Distinguished Research Professor of Astrophysics at Vanderbilt University and Andrew Hayes Buchanan professor of Astrophysics (emeritus) at Rice University.
Hashima Hasan is an Indian astrophysicist who has worked in the United States and India. She is NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Deputy Program Scientist and Education and Public Outreach Lead for Astrophysics. Hasan was also the Lead for Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis (R&A) programs from 2001 to 2006. In the past, she served as the program scientist for numerous NASA projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS), Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and the Explorer Program.
