NASA Announces New Astrophysics Probe Missions

During an online town hall meeting on January 11th, NASA announced it will go ahead with a line of probe-class astrophysics missions. During this meeting, NASA also announced that they expect to choose 2–3 proposals for concept studies that would take place over a couple of years. After completing the concept studies, NASA plans to choose one of the concepts to build the first probe starting mid-2025.

Artist concept of ATLAS probe mission. Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA has limited the first proposals to two concepts. The first is a far-infrared imaging and spectroscopy space telescope. The goal of this concept would be to further compliment the James Webb Space Telescope project that went into orbit earlier this week. The second concept would be an x-ray telescope mission. This concept would complement a similar European Space Agency x-ray telescope that is currently scheduled for launch in the 2030s.

Currently, NASA plans to launch one new astrophysics probe mission per decade, allowing time for development and focus to be on one project at a time. These missions will also fill in the gap of activity between the James Webb Space Telescope and the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which has an estimated launch of mid-2027.

All of these projects, JWST, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the upcoming astrophysics probe missions are aimed at paving the way towards…