According to The Verge, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy are funding the development of the Lazuli Space Observatory, which was announced at this week’s American Astronomical Society meeting. The telescope will feature a 3.1-meter mirror, making it larger than NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope but smaller than the James Webb. It’s equipped with a wide-field camera, a spectrograph, and a coronagraph to study exoplanets and supernovae, with a unique “rapid response” capability to quickly target transient events. The Lazuli observatory is part of the larger Schmidt Observatory System, which includes three ground-based telescopes: the Argus Array, Deep Synoptic Array, and Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope. Critically, the entire system is committed to open science, with data and software being broadly shared by default. All four telescopes, including the space-based Lazuli, are projected to be operational before the end of this decade.
A new era of private science
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just about a rich guy buying a cool space toy. The Schmidt Observatory System, as outlined by Schmidt Sciences, represents a fundamentally different model for big astronomy. We’re used to projects like Hubble and Webb, which are painstakingly funded by Congress and managed by NASA with international partners. The timeline is measured in decades, and every instrument choice is a political and budgetary battle. Schmidt’s approach seems to ask: what if you could just… build it? And share the data openly from day one? That’s a powerful shift. It could let scientists move at the speed of software, not the speed of government appropriations. But it also raises questions. Who gets to decide what gets built when the funding comes from a single private foundation?
Why Lazuli’s design matters
So, a 3.1-meter mirror is impressive for a private venture, but the real story is in the instruments and its role in the network. That “rapid response” capability is a big deal. Imagine a ground-based telescope, like one in the Schmidt system, spots a weird flash or a new supernova. Instead of filing a proposal and waiting months for time on Hubble or Webb, they could potentially task Lazuli to swing over and take a look within days or even hours. That’s huge for studying things that change quickly, like stellar explosions or active galactic nuclei. The coronagraph is also a key clue—it’s used to block starlight to directly image exoplanets. Combine that with the open data pledge, and you have a machine that could significantly accelerate the hunt for and characterization of worlds beyond our solar system.
The open-data gamble
The commitment to open science is arguably the most radical part of this. Schmidt Sciences says data and software will be shared “by default.” That’s a massive departure from the standard model where the principal investigators who built an instrument get exclusive access to the data for a year or more. Throwing it all open immediately levels the playing field for early-career researchers and scientists at institutions without giant grant-writing machines. It could supercharge discovery. But is it sustainable? Operating a space telescope is wildly expensive. The Schmidts are footing the bill now, but what about in 15 years? The promise of open data is fantastic, but long-term stewardship is the real challenge for any private scientific endeavor. Public agencies are built for the long haul; private philanthropy can change direction with a single decision.
A crowded decade ahead
Looking at the timeline—”operational before the end of the decade”—puts Lazuli in a fascinating context. It’s aiming to come online around the same time as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (which has a 2.4-meter mirror but a huge field of view) and possibly the European Space Agency’s Euclid and Plato missions. We’re entering a period where, for the first time, private capital is creating major observatories that can sit alongside national and international agency projects. This isn’t a SpaceX situation where private industry is providing a service (launch) to a government customer. This is private entities becoming the customer and the operator of frontier science assets. It blurs the lines completely. Will this model work? Can it last? The success or failure of the Schmidt Observatory System will probably determine whether other billionaires follow suit or stick to funding prizes and student scholarships. The next decade in astronomy just got a lot more interesting.
