Private organization plans large space telescope
Posted: Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 5:14 PM ET (2214 GMT)
A billionaire-backed philanthropic organization is funding development of a large space telescope. Schmidt Sciences announced Wednesday its plans for Lazuli, a space telescope with a mirror three meters across, larger than Hubble. Lazuli will be equipped with a camera, spectrograph and coronagraph for observing exoplanets. The organization plans to develop Lazuli rapidly, with a launch as soon as 2028, and at a “ridiculously” low price in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a tenth of the cost of NASA flagship astrophysics missions. Schmidt Sciences is also developing three ground-based observatories to operate in conjunction with Lazuli. The organization is funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy; Eric Schmidt is also an investor in and CEO of launch company Relativity Space.
A billionaire-backed philanthropic organization is funding development of a large space telescope. Schmidt Sciences announced Wednesday its plans for Lazuli, a space telescope with a mirror three meters across, larger than Hubble. Lazuli will be equipped with a camera, spectrograph and coronagraph for observing exoplanets. The organization plans to develop Lazuli rapidly, with a launch as soon as 2028, and at a “ridiculously” low price in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a tenth of the cost of NASA flagship astrophysics missions. Schmidt Sciences is also developing three ground-based observatories to operate in conjunction with Lazuli. The organization is funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy; Eric Schmidt is also an investor in and CEO of launch company Relativity Space.
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