From spy satellite to space telescope: The unlikely origins of NASA's Roman Space Telescope

NASA took the guts out of old spy satellites to build the groundbreaking Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – but how? And why? Years of hard work and anticipation are culminating as we sit on the verge of NASA's launch of its next-generation space telescope. Set to lift off this upcoming Sunday (Aug. 30) aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the Roman Space Telescope will push astronomy into the future, exploring the mysteries of dark energy, studying far-off worlds and expanding our understanding of the universe around us. But to get to this point, NASA used some … unexpected technology. At the core of the observatory lies the Optical Telescope Assembly. This houses the telescope's primary mirror, its main mechanism through which it surveys the cosmos, nine additional mirrors, supporting structures and various sorts of electronics. But where did all of this tech come from? The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which builds spy equipment for U.S. agencies like the CIA. That's where.In 1999, the NRO stood up the multibillion-dollar "Future Imagery Architecture" program, which contracted out new spy satellites. The NRO contracted Boeing for the project, having the company design a whole suite of new optical and radar imaging reconnaissance satellites. They're basically spy satellites. In 2001, in a post-9/11 America, this effort continued to ramp up with national security concerns at an all-time-high. However, this flurry of spy satellite development was short-lived. And with billions of dollars in overrun costs from Boeing, the project closed in 2005. At the time, the New York Times called the program "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects." But one program's spectacular failure is another program's free space tech treasure. Years later, in 2012, the NRO donated two unused space telescopes from this program to NASA. With optics said to be similar to the Hubble Space Telescope's, two free telescopes presented the agency with a tantalizing opportunity. This donation happened just a couple of years after Roman (then known as WFIRST) was originally proposed — and even though it would cost money to rework the hardware and build the rest of the space telescope out, this provided the possibility of a serious cost alleviation to the mission. After considering the possibility, the team decided it was the right call. And in 2011, years before Roman (WFIRST) was even formally designated as a mission by NASA, the agency announced that they would be reusing this spy satellite technology. This decision followed the 2010 National Academy of Science Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, which pointed to Roman as its highest priority. While this donated spy satellite part came with top-tier optics, it was also free. The most recent space telescope to launch was the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which lifted off in 2018 but was in development since the mid-1990s. The JWST garnered significant public attention and scrutiny for being both well behind schedule and way over budget, ultimately costing a whopping $10 billion. Scientists working on the Roman Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts)As the JWST was grappling with these budget issues, Roman was already in development. So, it's not a shock that when a high-tech space telescope landed on their doorstep, NASA took full advantage of the opportunity, though the Roman team would still have to replace the electronics in the telescopes that the NRO removed. Thus, in the end, did the NRO telescopes actually save NASA money? It's not clear. Each donated telescope was said to be worth at least $250 million, but experts at the time of development were torn in their estimates for whether repurposing this old hardware would actually save or eat up costs in the end. A few quirks also came with the free hardware. In addition to having to replace the electronics and rework a telescope someone else built, the Roman team had to learn about the telescope with some, well, restrictions. When the details about the telescopes were given to the mission team, there were large chunks of information fully blacked out, the Washington Post reported at the time. But while the Roman team was handed something quite strange to work with, the mission has remained about as on schedule and on budget as we've seen with a space telescope of this magnitude. NASA still has the second telescope from the NRO, though the agency has not said what they might do with the equipment. However strange and unexpected this series of events may have been, it did result in a completed space telescope that now sits at the launch site, ready to uncover the mysteries of the universe. Join us this upcoming Sunday (Aug. 30) to see a telescope made with spy satellite tech travel beyond our planet.