In a recent development, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, have announced their intention to privately fund the construction of several new observatories, including a groundbreaking space telescope named Lazuli. This initiative, reported by Ars Technica, aims to succeed the aging Hubble Space Telescope, which is expected to conclude its mission in the early 2030s.

As highlighted by The Verge, Lazuli will boast a 3.1-meter mirror, surpassing the size of NASA’s Hubble but smaller than the James Webb Space Telescope. The Lazuli telescope will feature cutting-edge technology, including a wide-field camera, a broadband integral-field spectrograph, and a coronagraph, enhancing its observational capabilities.

To put it in perspective, the Hubble Telescope is equipped with a 2.4-meter mirror, while the James Webb Telescope’s mirror measures 6.6 meters.

Lazuli is set to orbit at a greater distance from Earth compared to the Hubble, following an elliptical path with its farthest point at 275,000 km and its closest at 77,000 km. This orbit will position Lazuli above the layer of low Earth orbit satellites, such as those from Starlink, providing an unobstructed view of the cosmos and enabling continuous operation.

The launch of the Lazuli telescope is scheduled for 2028, with its operational phase expected to commence in 2029.

Lazuli will be located farther from Earth than the Hubble, in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 275,000 km and a perigee of 77,000 km. The orbit will place the new space telescope above the area where Starlink and other low Earth orbit communications satellites reside. Lazuli will have a clearer view of the heavens and can be controlled 24/7.

Launch is planned for 2028 with operations to begin in 2029.

The Schmidts’ decision solves a problem for NASA I covered almost a year ago. With the Hubble Space Telescope ending its operational life, the space agency was faced with a decision to either try a risky reboost mission using a SpaceX Dragon or to develop an expensive substitute.

The development and deployment of a private space telescope solved the conundrum. NASA doesn’t have to pay anything, either to save the Hubble or to replace it.

Schmidt claims that the Lazuli will cost much less than the Hubble. NASA stated that the lifetime cost of the Hubble, as of 2021, was $16 billion. The figure does not include the cost of deploying the telescope or of the servicing missions.

Considering that a shuttle flight could cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion during the orbiter fleet’s prime and that, say, a Falcon Heavy would cost a fraction of that amount, Schmidt is correct, considering launch costs alone. Needless to say, the private sector is more efficient and cost effective than NASA has ever dreamed of being.

Lazuli is not the only observatory that the Schmidts are planning to finance. They are developing three ground-based observatories. 

This includes the Argus Array, featuring 1,200 telescopes with 11-inch mirrors, likely to be located in Texas. It also includes the DSA Radio Telescope, consisting of 1,600 radio dishes with a 6-meter antenna. The array would seem to replace some of the functions of the Arecibo radio telescope, which collapsed several years ago, at a cheaper cost. Finally, they will finance the LFAST, which will conduct scalable, large-aperture spectroscopy and likely be based in Arizona.

The proposed telescopes are just the latest private space projects that are revolutionizing how space science is conducted. The proliferation of public-spirited billionaires and the drastic lowering of launch costs, thanks to SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, and Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck, has enabled this revolution.

Other private space ventures include the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the private moon landers such as the Firefly Blue Ghost, and the upcoming commercial space stations such as the Vast Space’s Haven-1, due to be deployed later in 2026. Each of these ventures are, to one extent or another, enabled by NASA under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

Odin, an asteroid prospecting mission by Astroforge, was less than successful in early 2025. Venus Life Finder, a joint venture between Rocket Lab and MIT, is slated to launch no earlier than the summer of 2026. Neither of these projects have direct NASA participation.

The entry of private players into space science projects addresses a problem that became apparent in 2025 when the Trump administration attempted to drastically cut a large number of NASA science programs. While Congress eventually restored most of those cuts, the controversy revealed the peril of political whims affecting space science.

The Human Landing System, commercial mining and resource processing, and AI-driven robotics are examples of private participation in the building of a lunar base.

The ultimate private space venture remains Musk’s plans to found a settlement on Mars. With the renewed focus on sending astronauts into deep space again by President Donald Trump and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, NASA will almost certainly be a partner to Musk’s program, particularly providing nuclear power and propulsion technology.

The space age of the latter half of the 20th century was primarily government centric. The 21st century is featuring a second space age that is increasingly private.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.