The astronomical community marked the passing of former NASA Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman earlier this week. Roman, who founded the agency's program for space astronomy in 1959 and played a central role in planning and developing the Hubble Space Telescope, was the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA. Roman's early work at NASA included arguing for, and supporting the development of, pointing control systems for the vehicles that would eventually carry astronomy into space. For those efforts, her colleagues remember her as the "mother of Hubble, and the space telescope she helped bring into existence will, despite some recent trouble with its gyroscopes, outlive its mother. New opportunities can open up for you in this ever changing field," she told a NASA interviewer on her 90th birthday.

Source: Forbes January 01, 2019 02:48 UTC