A close-in view of a barred spiral galaxy. The bright, glowing bar crosses the center of the galaxy, with spiral arms curving away from the bar’s ends and continuing out of view. Bright patches of light where stars are forming surround the bar, which also holds dark lines of dust. The galaxy’s clouds of gas spread out from its arms and bar, giving way to a dark background with some foreground stars and small, distant galaxies.

Large Mission Study (LMS) Implementation

Building on NASA’s relevant technological foundations and enormous investments developing major space telescopes, and incorporating the lessons learned from the NASA Large Mission Study (LMS), the HWO Maturation Process will unite government, industry, and academia to develop the technologies needed for NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission.

This program will leverage past NASA flagship investments from the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Roman Space Telescope, and will draw on decades of lessons from the development of these and other NASA missions to streamline the development of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) concept to decrease budget and schedule risks for HWO and future missions.  These lessons have been identified in the NASA Large Mission Study (LMS).  Early investments in technology development, mission architecture analysis tools, exploring and identifying the science drivers, and other long-term planning activities will make the future Habitable Worlds Observatory a scientific, technical, and programmatic success while keeping the United States a global leader in space science.

This process for maturing the science and technology for a flagship mission during the pre-Phase A stage of development will focus on several key early activities to ensure future flagship telescopes, starting with HWO, are developed on a predictable cost and schedule while minimizing risks of overruns. These coordinated activities will ensure the scope of HWO is clearly defined, and will advance the technologies that will enable HWO to deliver revolutionary science.

hwo leadership team

Portrait of Julie Crooke. She is smiling and wearing glasses, a grey blazer, and a white shirt.

Julie Crooke

HWO Program Executive,
NASA Headquarters

A woman with short black hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing a beige shirt and circular earrings

Megan Ansdell

HWO Program Scientist,
NASA Headquarters

Portrait of Joshua Pepper in a vest, blue tie, and light blue dress shirt.

Joshua Pepper

HWO Deputy Program Scientist,
NASA Headquarters

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NASA Headquarters

SMD Large Mission Study

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Roman