NASA advances PRIMA space telescope project for 2033 launch

NASA has officially validated the transition to Phase B for the Probe Far-infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA), a new space telescope project aimed at exploring the far-infrared spectrum. The mission is designed to fill a critical observational gap between the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based radio telescopes.

With a budget capped at $1.2 billion (excluding launch costs), PRIMA represents the first mission in NASA’s new “Probe Explorers” class, a middle tier of exploration between modest missions and large-scale flagship observatories. The telescope is intended to observe the cold, dusty regions of the cosmos, such as newborn stars and growing black holes, which are often obscured from other instruments.

Targeting a launch in the early 2030s, the mission will likely be positioned at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately one million kilometers from Earth. To achieve high sensitivity, engineers plan to use a modified cryocooler system—originally designed for the James Webb Space Telescope—to cool the optics and sensors to approximately 4.5 Kelvin.