{"id":41504,"date":"2026-01-11T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=41504"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:29:56","slug":"superheavy-lift-rockets-like-spacexs-starship-could-transform-astronomy-by-making-space-telescopes-cheaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/superheavy-lift-rockets-like-spacexs-starship-could-transform-astronomy-by-making-space-telescopes-cheaper\/","title":{"rendered":"Superheavy-lift rockets like SpaceX\u2019s Starship could transform astronomy by making space telescopes cheaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martin Elvis<\/a>, Smithsonian Institution<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket<\/a> from SpaceX had a fully successful test<\/a> on Oct. 13, 2025. A couple more test flights, and SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month later, a rival rocket company, Blue Origin, flew its almost-as-large New Glenn rocket all the way to orbit<\/a> and sent spacecraft on their way to Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these successful flights are exciting news for future missions to the Moon as well as other planets, I\u2019ve argued for several years<\/a> that these superheavy-lift rockets can also boost<\/a> research in my own specialty, astronomy \u2013 the study of stars and galaxies far beyond our solar system \u2013 to new heights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the broad view<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why do I say that? Astronomy needs space. Getting above the atmosphere allows telescopes to detect vastly more of the electromagnetic spectrum<\/a> than visible light alone. At these heights, telescopes can detect light at much longer and shorter wavelengths, which are otherwise blocked by Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get an idea of how that has enriched astronomy, imagine listening to someone play the piano, but only in one octave. The music would sound much richer if they used the full keyboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the broader spectrum in view, astronomers can see objects in the sky that are much colder than stars, but also objects that are far hotter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much cooler and hotter? The hottest stars you can see in visible light are about 10 times hotter than the coolest. With the whole infrared-to-X-ray spectrum, the temperatures that come into view can be 1,000 times colder or 1,000 times hotter than regular stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists have had nearly 50 years of access to the full light spectrum with sets of increasingly powerful telescopes. Alas, this access has come at an ever-increasing cost, too. The newest telescope is the spectacular James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, which cost about US$10 billion and detects a portion of the infrared spectrum. At that forbidding price, NASA can\u2019t afford to match Webb across the spectrum by building its full infrared and X-ray siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
NASA\u2019s Great Observatories were designed to detect different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spitzer was decommissioned in 2020, a year before Webb launched. NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll have to wait a long time even for one more. The estimated date to launch the next \u201cGreat Observatory\u201d is a distant 2045<\/a> and may be later. The range of notes astronomers can play will shrink, along with our views of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escaping the trap with heavy-lift vehicles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These new rockets give us a chance to escape this trap. For the same cost, they can send about 10 times more mass<\/a> to orbit, and they have bodies about twice as wide, compared with the rockets that have been in use for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass matters because telescopes contain heavy mirrors, and the bigger the mirror, the better<\/a> they work. For example, building Webb\u2019s large mirror meant finding a way to make a superb mirror that was 10 times lighter in weight per square meter than the already lightweight Hubble mirror. The engineers found a solution that was technically sweet but financially costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Superheavy-lift rockets like SpaceX\u2019s Starship and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System can carry heavier payloads than smaller rockets, like SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 and the European Space Agency\u2019s Ariane V, the latter of which brought the Webb telescope into space. Holly M. Dinkel and Jason K. Cornelius<\/a>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the size of the rocket\u2019s body matters because to fit Webb\u2019s 21-foot-diameter mirror (6.5 meters) into the 13-foot-diameter body (4 meters) of its ride, the Ariane V rocket<\/a>, it had to fold<\/a> up like origami for launch. Normally, space missions try to avoid any moving parts, but for Webb they had no choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, the result was a technical triumph, but the complexity introduced over 300 places<\/a> where one mistake could have ended the mission. Each one of the over 300 locations had to be 300 times less likely to fail than if there had been only one, pumping up the design, manufacturing and testing requirements \u2013 and inflating the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The larger, wider Starship and New Glenn rockets mean that building a Webb-like space telescope today could be done with none of the origami-like folding and unfolding, with their attendant risks, and so be much cheaper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New ideas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This opportunity is being seized by at least three teams. First, a proposed deep infrared telescope called Origins<\/a> would take advantage of superheavy lift. Scientists at Caltech are studying a potential smaller version called Prima<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, an X-ray telescope that can take pictures as sharp as Webb \u2013 with a sensitivity to match \u2013 would likely use thicker and heavier mirrors than imagined just a few years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And third, a study published in 2025 proposes a very low-frequency radio telescope<\/a>, GO-LoW, that also takes advantage of using more mass. GO-LoW would be made of 100,000 tiny telescopes, so mass production savings kick in too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three of these telescopes would be easily 100 times more sensitive than their predecessors and at least comparable to Webb in their own bands of the spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be ideal if engineers could get these telescopes down to half the cost of a large observatory like Webb. Then, for the same price, NASA could fly two new Great Observatories instead of resigning itself to building one. If it could get the cost down to a third, it could potentially fly a full spectrum-spanning set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big challenges, big payoff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course, a lot could go wrong. For one thing, these rockets may not perform as advertised, either in capability or cost. Still, investing in a few starting studies won\u2019t cost much and will likely have a big payoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For another, like the poet Goethe on his deathbed, we astronomers will always be asking for \u201cmore light<\/a>.\u201d But if we call for yet bigger and more complex telescopes than the already awesome Great Observatories recommended by the National Academies 2020 Astronomy Survey<\/a>, then we will bring back all the costly issues faced by the Webb designers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space agencies have the challenge of keeping the astronomers\u2019 endless desires under strict control \u2013 building to cost must come first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if agencies can keep astronomers\u2019 ambitions from becoming too astronomical, while taking full advantage of the new design space opened up by the superheavy-lift rockets, then our understanding of the universe could advance beyond imagination in just a decade or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Elvis<\/a>, Senior Astrophysicist, Smithsonian Institution<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Elvis, Smithsonian Institution After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket from SpaceX had a fully successful test on Oct. 13, 2025. A couple more test flights, and SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit. A month later, a rival rocket company, Blue Origin, flew its almost-as-large New Glenn rocket all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":41505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,276,10,25,118,3410,15533],"tags":[10351,218,8186,11219,11242,885,891,886,860,4492,17355,187,17353,17354,5962,11239,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41714,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41504\/revisions\/41714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}