Dr. Nancy Grace Roman spent 21 years at NASA developing and launching space-based observatories that studied the sun, deep space, and Earth’s atmosphere. She most famously worked to develop the concepts behind the Hubble Space Telescope, which just spent its 30th year in orbit.
Roman earned the nickname “mother of Hubble” for her role in pushing for that telescope. When it launched in 1990, Hubble became the first of NASA’s “great observatories,” which are designed to push the limits of human knowledge about the cosmos.
Roman also served as NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, making her the first woman to hold an executive position at the agency. She died in 2018.
Roman “had huge influence in all of astronomy and space,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said in a NASA video announcing the name.
Picture Credit Google
