Nancy Grace Roman was a pioneer as NASA’s first female executive and the space agency’s first chief astronomer in the 1960s and 1970s. Known as the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,” a new telescope bearing her name will launch on August 30. But the folks at Fox Business were a little confused by the whole thing on Monday. The NASA administrator was asked why they were naming a telescope after true crime television host Nancy Grace. Ashley Webster was replacing regular host Stuart Varney on “Varney and Co.” on Monday, where he was interviewing the head of NASA, billionaire Jared Isaacman. “I have to ask you, how did you come up with Nancy Grace? Because that really stands out. I mean, you know, she’s a household name on television. How did she end up attaching her name to that mission?” Webster asked. “Well, you’re talking about NASA’s chief astronomer… the first chief astronomer, and when you think about the potential of this mission, those who certainly came before me probably solicited a lot of great ideas for the name that should be attached to America’s next big exploration asset,” Isaacman responded, clearly trying not to embarrass Webster too much by pointedly saying he was wrong. “And we have the upcoming launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope this weekend,” Isaacman continued. Webster finally seemed to understand and didn’t seem embarrassed in the least, saying, “So it’s not that Nancy Grace, it’s someone else at NASA.” Isaacman responded: “He is one of NASA’s many great contributors.” It may not be a surprise that a Fox Business host has never heard of Nancy Grace Roman, but if you’re going to have the NASA administrator on the show to discuss her upcoming missions, you’ll probably want to do a quick Google search on the topics she’s likely to discuss. The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will be completed in late 2025 and will launch next Sunday. As the Planetary Society points out, it is expected to discover about 200,000 possible planets and study a billion galaxies. Pretty good, if you are a fan of astronomy and learning new things in general. But the telescope was nearly shut down after President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January 2025. The White House Office of Management and Budget announced a plan to cut NASA’s science program in half, canceling at least 41 missions. Fortunately, those cuts were avoided in Congress. Artist’s illustration of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Nancy Grace Roman isn’t exactly a household name. But it could become one now that its telescope is soon to be launched. Everyone knows the name Hubble thanks to its launch in 1990 and subsequent images such as the Pillars of Creation. The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will reportedly have an observation range at least 100 times greater than Hubble. Hopefully Trump doesn’t find out about a new telescope named after some egghead scientist. Like the plan to potentially remove World War II heroine Doris Miller’s name from a US Navy aircraft carrier, one can easily imagine a world in which Trump would want to name it after himself.
