NASA selects industry partners to mature Habitable Worlds Observatory technologies

by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 07, 2026
NASA has chosen a set of industry proposals to advance technologies for its Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, a planned flagship space telescope intended to directly image Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars and analyze their atmospheres for potential signs of life.

The observatory is also expected to support a broad astrophysics program and contribute to planning for future human exploration of Mars, elsewhere in the solar system, and more distant targets.

"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 meet its science goals, the observatory must maintain an extremely stable optical system, with motions limited to no more than roughly the width of an atom while collecting data.

The mission will rely on a coronagraph that blocks starlight so that much fainter orbiting planets can be detected, with performance requirements thousands of times more demanding than any coronagraph previously flown in space.

Engineers plan to design the Habitable Worlds Observatory for in-space servicing, enabling future upgrades, life extension, and sustained scientific output over an extended mission lifetime.

To raise the readiness of these technologies, NASA has awarded three-year, fixed-price contracts to seven companies: Astroscale U.S. Inc. of Denver; BAE Systems Space and Mission Systems, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado; Busek Co. Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts; L3Harris 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, leveraging the groundwork we've laid from previous NASA flagship missions. With the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA will chart new frontiers for humanity's exploration of the cosmos," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Awards like these are a critical component of our incubator program for future missions, which combines government leadership with commercial innovation to make what is impossible today rapidly implementable in the future."

The selected proposals continue industry participation that began in 2017 under NASA's System-Level Segmented Telescope Design solicitations, which supported concepts for large segmented space telescopes.

That work progressed with awards for large space telescope technologies in 2024, and the new contracts will further inform NASA's planning for the Habitable Worlds Observatory architecture and key subsystems.

NASA will draw on technologies and lessons from the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as it refines the Habitable Worlds Observatory concept and prepares for a future mission.