NASA is creating a Science, Technology, Architecture Review Team (START) to determine the science scope and needed observatory capabilities for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). HWO was prioritized by the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey and is slated to be the NASA Astrophysics flagship mission that will follow the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. HWO will directly image and characterize exoplanets and conduct a wide range of groundbreaking astrophysics observations in the ultraviolet-visible-near infrared wavelength range. The Dear Colleague Letter and detailed Terms of Reference can be found on the NASA Astrophysics Great Observatories Maturation Program (GOMAP) webpage at:  

We are soliciting self-nominations for people to serve on the START. We want START to be composed of people from diverse backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives, and encourage scientists, engineers, and technologists with terminal degrees in their field to self-nominate.

For more information on the START self-nomination process, please see the Dear Colleague Letter. For more information on the duties of START and its relationship to other activities please see the Terms of Reference for the NASA Astrophysics HWO START.

NASA will host a Virtual Town Hall meeting on Friday, May 5, 2023, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (Eastern Time) to answer questions from the community. To connect to the town hall meeting, click the button below:

Questions may be addressed to Julie.A.Crooke@nasa.gov.