Who was Nancy Grace Roman? NASA's next big space telescope is named after the 'Mother of Hubble'

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to launch on an incredible adventure to help scientists explore the great mysteries of the universe.

But who was Nancy Grace Roman? You might have heard about the upcoming launch on Sunday morning (Aug.

30), which will send NASA's next flagship space telescope up to investigate everything from dark matter and dark energy to far-off worlds beyond our solar system.

But do you know who the telescope is named for? This observatory will be an absolute powerhouse for astronomy, and its namesake is perfectly fitting.

Nancy Grace Roman was the first-ever chief astronomer at NASA and the agency's first female executive.

She created NASA's space astronomy program in 1959, just one year after the agency was created.

She laid the groundwork for modern astronomy and played a critical role in making missions like the Hubble Space Telescope happen, a feat that earned her the nickname the "mother of Hubble." In short, Nancy Grace Roman was a trailblazing scientist and leader whose work has made modern space science possible.

But let's dig a little deeper.

Roman's early years Roman was born on May 16, 1925.

Her mother was a music teacher and her father was a geophysicist.

Over the years, Roman would often attribute her early interest in science to influence from her parents.

"I teasingly have blamed my mother for getting me interested in astronomy, because I can remember up in Michigan she used to take me out at night and show me the constellations and the aurora and things like that.

But she also showed me birds and trees and animals and plants and that sort of thing, so it wasn't just astronomy," Roman said in a 1980 interview with David DeVorkin.

That conversation took place just a few years after Hubble formally began development and a decade before the space telescope would launch (though at this time, Hubble was still called the "Large Space Telescope").