Private Funding Launches 4 New Observatories by 2029

Astronomers are getting four powerful new observatories within three years, and every discovery they make will be free for the world to see.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy announced the Schmidt Observatory System at last week's American Astronomical Society meeting in Phoenix. The four facilities have been quietly under development for up to five years and represent one of the largest private investments in astronomy to date.

The crown jewel is the Lazuli Space Telescope, launching in July 2028 with a 3-meter mirror that's bigger than both Hubble and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman space telescope. That gives it more than 50% greater light-collecting power than these famous observatories.

But size isn't Lazuli's only advantage. The telescope can respond to new discoveries in just 90 minutes to four hours, compared to Hubble's typical response time of days or weeks. When astronomers spot something exciting like a fresh supernova or newly discovered asteroid, Lazuli can swing into action almost immediately.

The space telescope will hunt for exoplanets using its built-in coronagraph, which blocks bright starlight to reveal fainter planets nearby. Its 23 cameras will capture images from visible light through near-infrared, and a special spectrograph will analyze the chemistry of distant objects.

Three ground-based arrays complete the system. The Deep Synoptic Array combines 1,650 radio dishes in a quiet Nevada valley to photograph the radio sky. The Argus Array links 1,212 small telescopes in Texas to create a near-continuous movie of the visible sky. The Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope will use groups of 20 telescopes working together from Arizona's Kitt Peak to study the chemistry of stars and galaxies.

Arpita Roy, director of astrophysics and space at Schmidt Sciences, says the team is embracing an experimental approach. "We're going to be very fast and risk-embracing and try to do things inexpensively, and yet try to serve world class science," she explains. "And we will either succeed, or we will learn something."

The Argus Array team is aiming to collect its first light in 2027. Lazuli's 2028 launch date was specifically chosen to coordinate with other major observatories like Roman and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, allowing astronomers to combine data from multiple sources.

Why This Inspires

Private funding is opening new doors for space science without replacing existing programs. These observatories use technology 20 years more advanced than Hubble's, proving that innovation doesn't have to wait decades between major missions. The decision to make all data publicly available means scientists everywhere can benefit, not just those connected to wealthy institutions.

By 2029, astronomers will have an unprecedented toolkit for studying exoplanets, tracking cosmic explosions, and unraveling the universe's mysteries.