Updated\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSept. 1, 2026, 6:55 a.m. ET<\/span><\/p>\n<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
When the donation was announced in June 2012, an N.R.O. spokeswoman said the hardware was built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That fits the timeline of the spy agency\u2019s Future Imagery Architecture program, which was aiming to build advanced telescopes looking down at Earth to reveal to intelligence agencies what their adversaries were doing. The program was canceled in 2005.<\/p>\n
John Grunsfeld, a former NASA astronaut, was deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore when the initial WFIRST design was unveiled in 2010, and he was among those who were disappointed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe were sort of depressed that that\u2019s the best that the astronomy community can come up with,\u201d Dr. Grunsfeld said.<\/p>\n
When he became the head of NASA\u2019s science directorate in January 2012, he found out he could make WFIRST better.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it was super obvious from the start,\u201d Dr. Grunsfeld said, that one of the two N.R.O. mirrors would be repurposed for the dark-energy telescope.<\/p>\n
The larger mirror would collect 2.5 times as much light, increasing the scientific payoffs for WFIRST.<\/p>\n
Dr. Grunsfeld also wanted to add a coronagraph, a disk that blocks out the light so that planets around a star can be seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That would make WFIRST more appealing to the planet-finding astronomers, and provide a technological proof of concept.<\/p>\n
After consulting with NASA experts, Dr. Grunfeld turned to Matt Mountain, the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, to put together a small group of scientists and engineers to get an independent opinion on the possibility of building a camera and coronagraph around the existing telescope \u2014 still a secret outside of the government \u2014 at a reasonable cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the challenge he set us,\u201d Dr. Mountain said.<\/p>\n
Within weeks, a sprint for a study like this, the answer came back: yes.<\/p>\n
The tentative plan was revealed publicly soon after that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The next hurdle: There was no money in NASA\u2019s budget to start work.<\/p>\n
Dr. Grunsfeld made the case to the Office of Management and Budget that recycling the N.R.O. mirror in a NASA telescope was a prudent use of taxpayer dollars that had already been spent, and the increased capabilities would ensure American leadership in the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cO.M.B. looked at that in some detail and said that sounds like a good idea,\u201d Dr. Grunsfeld said.<\/p>\n
Even though the Obama administration proposed deep cuts to NASA\u2019s astrophysics program, there was enough money to get the telescope started.<\/p>\n
During President Trump\u2019s first term, his administration repeatedly sought to cancel the telescope. Each time, Congress, with both Republican and Democratic support, provided the financing to keep it on schedule.<\/p>\n
The fate of the second mirror is unclear. During a news conference last month, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, the astrophysics division director at NASA, said, \u201cThere\u2019s no current plans that NASA has, that I\u2019m aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dr. Grunsfeld said that NASA had been asked to return it, and has not had possession of the second mirror for quite a while.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the National Reconnaissance Office acknowledged its role in providing a key component for the Roman telescope, but offered few additional details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis act of interagency collaboration represents our commitment to the responsible stewardship of national assets,\u201d the statement said. \u201cBy identifying advanced hardware no longer required for the N.R.O.\u2019s mission, we were able to partner with NASA to help meet their highest-priority science objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon astrophysicists might finally get the data they have waited decades for, which could explain why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur current model of the universe is broken,\u201d Dr. Mountain said. \u201cSo it would be good to understand what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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