In a groundbreaking initiative, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is set to launch the world’s first privately funded full-scale space telescope by the end of the decade. Dubbed the Schmidt Sciences, the telescope is designed to surpass the capabilities of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, offering rapid and precise astronomical observations across a broad spectrum of scientific fields.
Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences and Eric Schmidt’s wife, explained the mission’s vision to Scientific American, stating, “For 20 years, Eric and I have pursued philanthropy to seek new frontiers. With the Schmidt Observatory System [which includes Lazuli], we’re enabling multiple approaches to understanding the vast universe where we find ourselves stewards of a living planet.”
Innovative Telescope Design
The heart of the observatory is an off-axis, freeform telescope design that promises diffraction-limited image quality across visible to near-infrared wavelengths, spanning approximately 400 to 1,700 nanometres. This optical system feeds a wide, flat focal plane, delivering exceptionally sharp images with a Strehl ratio greater than 0.8 at 633 nanometres. Such performance allows Lazuli, the telescope’s main instrument, to support demanding observations across multiple instruments simultaneously.
Scientific Instruments on Board
Lazuli is equipped with three complementary scientific instruments, each optimized for a unique scientific role. The wide-field context camera provides multiband imaging over a large field of view, measuring approximately 35 by 12 arcminutes. This instrument is designed for high-cadence photometry, enabling astronomers to track changes in brightness over short timescales and contextualize transient events within their broader astrophysical environment.
The integral field spectrograph offers continuous spectroscopic coverage across the full 400–1,700 nanometre bandpass at moderate spectral resolution. By capturing spatially resolved spectra, it allows scientists to measure light variations both across an object and across wavelengths, supporting precise spectrophotometry for studies of stars, galaxies, and transient phenomena.
The third instrument, the ExtraSolar Coronagraph, focuses on high-contrast imaging, designed to suppress the overwhelming glare of stars to reveal faint nearby objects, particularly exoplanets. The system is expected to achieve extremely deep contrast levels, reaching raw contrasts of around one part in 100 million and approaching one part in a billion after data processing. This capability places Lazuli at the forefront of direct exoplanet imaging and atmospheric characterization.
Privately Funded Space Exploration
Stuart Feldman, an astronomer, computer scientist, and president of Schmidt Sciences, emphasized the project’s uniqueness in an interview with Scientific American, stating, “This is the first full-scale observatory that is privately funded in space.”
A defining feature of Lazuli is its operational agility. The observatory will operate from a lunar-resonant orbit with a three-to-one resonance, enabling efficient sky access and stable observing conditions. From this orbit, Lazuli is designed to respond to targets of opportunity in less than four hours. This rapid response capability is a core program requirement and represents a significant advancement in temporal flexibility for a space telescope of this size, allowing routine follow-up of fleeting or unpredictable cosmic events.
Science Themes and Global Collaboration
The observatory’s technical design is shaped around three broad science themes. The first is time domain and multi-messenger astronomy, which includes identifying and characterizing counterparts to gravitational wave events and other fast-evolving transients. The second focuses on stars and planets, particularly the direct imaging and spectroscopic study of exoplanets and their atmospheres. Finally, the third area is cosmology, where Lazuli will contribute to precision measurements such as Type Ia supernova observations used to probe the expansion of the universe.
“We’re not replacing NSF or NASA or the European agencies. We’re trying to fill in areas that they really aren’t designed for and invest in that,” Feldman stressed.
While these science priorities guide the design, Lazuli is intended to operate as a general-purpose observatory. A significant portion of observing time will be open to the global astronomical community, enabling a broad range of investigations beyond the core themes.
Looking Ahead
The current concept outlines the observatory’s architecture and capabilities at a preliminary design stage. The program is planned around a rapid development cycle, with the aim of moving efficiently from concept to launch and into science operations. This initiative promises to deliver a powerful and flexible new asset for space-based astronomy, marking a significant milestone in the era of private space exploration.
As the project progresses, the astronomical community eagerly anticipates the contributions of the Schmidt Sciences to our understanding of the universe, paving the way for future private-public collaborations in space exploration.
