A University of Arizona-led team is to build the primary near-infrared science camera for NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), scheduled for launch in 2010. The instrument's 6m (20ft)-diameter primary mirror - 2.5 times the diameter of the Hubble Space Telescope's - will see objects 400 times fainter than those studied by ground-based telescopes. Development of the foldable mirror has delayed the launch from 2008. Lockheed Martin and TRW are competing to build the NGST.
Source: Flight International