Future Exploration · 4

Future Observatories

The great space observatories of the coming decades — dark energy, habitable worlds, gravitational waves, and the X-ray sky.

AthenaMission concept
Under study · In reformulation; launch envisaged in the late 2030s
ESA's next great X-ray observatory — designed to study the hot, energetic universe, from the gas that binds galaxy clusters to the black holes that shaped galaxies, at far higher sensitivity than today's X-ray telescopes.
Habitable Worlds ObservatoryMission concept
Under study · In early design; launch envisaged in the 2040s
NASA's next flagship space telescope, recommended by the astronomy decadal survey — designed to directly image potentially habitable planets around other stars and search their atmospheres for signs of life.
LISAMission concept
In development · Launch planned in the mid-2030s
A space-based gravitational-wave observatory — three spacecraft forming a giant laser interferometer to hear the low-frequency ripples in spacetime that ground detectors cannot, from the mergers of the largest black holes.

Already in development or en route

These missions are already first-class entities in the graph — explore each on its page.

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