NASA ADVANCES PRIMA INFRARED TELESCOPE TOWARDS 2033 LAUNCH

NASA has confirmed it is advancing the PRIMA space telescope into Phase B, its preliminary design phase, according to a NASA statement. The mission, formally called the Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics, is the first in a new category of NASA observatories called Probe Explorers. NASA said managers will review the mission's progress before it begins the journey to launch. If it proceeds as planned, PRIMA would launch no earlier than 2033 and operate for five years.

PRIMA will use a 1.8-metre (5.9ft) telescope to study far-infrared wavelengths, a different range to the near- and mid-infrared light detected by the James Webb Space Telescope. Its goals include examining exoplanet origins, galaxy growth and black hole evolution. Meredith MacGregor, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said the mission would help determine the role of water in planet formation and measure gas, carbon and oxygen levels in the discs where exoplanets form. She said these questions cannot be studied using the Webb telescope because the required spectral lines lie beyond its wavelength range. The University of Maryland and Caltech both contributed to developing the mission.

PRIMA was the only finalist for NASA's first Probe Explorer mission after NASA disqualified a rival X-ray observatory concept called AXIS this year, saying a concept study found it would not meet schedule and budget requirements. The scientist leading that study attributed the setbacks to disruptions and mismanagement at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. PRIMA itself will be led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA said the Probe Explorer category sits between lower-cost Explorer-class missions, capped at a few hundred million dollars, and flagship observatories such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which reportedly cost around $4.3 billion and launched last month.