Although any telescope could be called a window to the stars, the launch of Hubble Space Telescope forever altered our view of the cosmos. For the first time, observations could be made without the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere. It was perhaps the most significant astronomical advance since Galileo put two lenses on a tube and revolutionized how we observe the night sky.

Thirty-six years after Hubble Space Telescope left Earth, on April 24, 1990, the innovative instrument will have a new telescope build on its success. One named for a champion of Hubble, Nancy Grace Roman.

Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer from 1961 to 1963, was known as, “Mother of Hubble,” for her tireless dedication in developing tools to study deep space which led to Hubble. The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, known as “Roman” or “Roman Space Telescope” (RST) will have images with the resolution of Hubble, but it is designed to cover an area 100 times wider. The wide field imaging aims to unveil new worlds. Set for launch in 2026, exploration on this grand scale could reveal composition of exoplanets and mysteries of dark matter.

Its home will be one million miles away, near the James Webb Space Telescope, in Lagrange point 2 (L2). Working in tandem, these two telescopes gazing deep into the universe may generate images illuminating and familiar with those of rocky Earth-like worlds.