2016 Senior Review of Operating Missions

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) conducts independent, comparative reviews of operating missions within each division to maximize the scientific return from these missions within finite resources. NASA uses the findings from the Senior Review to define an implementation strategy and give programmatic direction to the missions and projects concerned through the next four fiscal years.

The 2016 Astrophysics Senior Review was conducted in February and March, 2016. As in the 2014 Senior Review, there were individual panels for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory that were separate from the main comparative panel. Both the Hubble and Chandra reviews were undertaken as incremental reviews from those held in 2014. For additional information on the review process, please see the Call for Proposals document below:


The panel reports and the NASA Response document for the 2016 Senior Review are provided below. For prior Senior Review Reports, please visit the Astrophysics Documents page.

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