Fox Business Host Learns NASA’s New Telescope Isn’t Named After That Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace Roman was a trailblazer as NASA’s first female executive and the first chief astronomer at the space agency in the 1960s and 70s. Known as the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,” a new telescope named after her will be launched Aug. 30. But the folks over at Fox Business were a bit confused by the entire thing on Monday. They asked NASA’s administrator why they were naming a telescope after true crime TV host Nancy Grace.

Ashley Webster was filling in for 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 sticks out. I mean, you know, she’s a well-known name in television. How did she end up getting her name attached to that mission?” asked Webster.

“Well, you’re talking about NASA’s chief astronomer… 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 great exploration asset,” replied Isaacman, clearly trying not to embarrass Webster too much by pointedly saying he was wrong.

“And we have the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope next up to launch this weekend,” Isaacman continued.

Webster finally seemed to understand and didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed, saying, “So it’s not that Nancy Grace, it’s someone else at NASA.” Isaacman responded, “It’s one of NASA’s many great contributors.”

It’s perhaps no 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 program to discuss their upcoming missions, you’d probably want to do a quick Google search on the topics you’re likely to discuss.

The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope was completed in late 2025 and will be launched this coming Sunday. As the Planetary Society notes, it’s projected to discover about 200,000 possible planets and survey 1 billion galaxies. Pretty neat, if you’re a fan of astronomy and learning about new things in general.

But the telescope was almost cut after President Donald Trump swept into office for a second time in Jan. 2025. The White House Office of Management and Budget announced a plan to cut NASA’s science program in half, cancelling at least 41 missions. Thankfully, those cuts were averted in Congress .

Nancy Grace Roman isn’t exactly a household name. But she might become one now that her telescope will soon be launched. Everyone knows the name Hubble thanks to its launch in 1990 and subsequent images, like the Pillars of Creation . The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will reportedly have an observation range at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s.

Hopefully, Trump doesn’t get wind of a new telescope named for some egg-head lady scientist. Much like the plan to potentially strip World War II hero Doris Miller’s name from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier , one can easily imagine a world where Trump would want to name it for himself.