According to a report highlighted by Science, a new privately funded space telescope called Lazuli is scheduled for launch by 2029, potentially rivaling or surpassing the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, marking a historic shift in how major astronomical observatories are built and funded. The project is led by Schmidt Sciences, the philanthropic foundation established by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt, and forms part of the broader Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System.
The initiative represents a coordinated network of four observatories designed to operate as a single scientific system rather than isolated facilities. Alongside Lazuli, the network includes the Argus Array for rapid, all-sky optical surveys, the Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope for large-scale spectral analysis, and the Deep Synoptic Array, a next-generation radio observatory. Together, they are intended to observe the universe across optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths, enabling faster discovery and immediate follow-up of transient cosmic events.
Lazuli is positioned as the centerpiece of the system. Operating from space, it is expected to feature a primary mirror larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope and will observe the sky in 23 wavelength bands spanning visible and infrared light. Its instruments are planned to include both a spectrograph and a coronagraph, allowing astronomers to analyze the chemical composition of distant objects and directly image exoplanets by suppressing the glare of their host stars. Researchers involved in the project suggest this could make Lazuli especially powerful for studying smaller, cooler planets that are difficult to detect with current space telescopes.
Beyond its technical specifications, Lazuli represents a philosophical departure from traditional space astronomy. Instead of being owned and operated by a national space agency, the observatory will be funded privately but operated in the open. Data collected by Lazuli and its companion observatories is expected to be released publicly within minutes, rather than being restricted to specific institutions or long proprietary periods. This approach is designed to accelerate discovery and allow researchers worldwide to participate in real time.
Project leaders describe the system as an attempt to modernize astronomy in the same way open-source models reshaped computing and data science. By tightly integrating multiple observatories and emphasizing immediate data sharing, the Schmidt Observatory System aims to reduce duplication, improve coordination, and make large-scale astronomical infrastructure more accessible.
Development of the system has been underway for several years, with agreements already in place and construction progressing across multiple sites. If the timeline holds, Lazuli’s launch in 2029 would coincide with the arrival of other major scientific facilities on Earth, allowing it to work in parallel with the next generation of ground-based telescopes rather than competing with them.
If successful, Lazuli would not only extend humanity’s view of the universe but also establish a precedent for how future flagship scientific instruments might be built, funded, and shared, shifting the balance of space science from exclusively government-led missions toward globally accessible, privately backed exploration.
