Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is trying to do for astronomy what cheap cloud computing did for software, backing a space telescope larger than Hubble at a cost he describes as “ridiculously” low compared with traditional government missions. Instead of waiting for the next flagship observatory to crawl through public budgets, he and his wife, Wendy, are putting up private money to build Lazuli, a three meter space telescope designed to launch before the end of the decade. If it works, the project could reset expectations for how big science is funded, built, and shared.
The plan is not just about one spacecraft. Eric and Wendy Schmidt are also paying for three ambitious ground based observatories, betting that a network of relatively lean, modern instruments can rival the scientific impact of far more expensive national facilities. I see in this strategy a deliberate attempt to import the rapid iteration and cost discipline of the tech industry into a field long dominated by slow, bespoke engineering.
The Lazuli bet: bigger than Hubble, built on a budget
At the center of the push is Lazuli, a private space observatory that aims to carry a three meter primary mirror, larger than the 2.4 meter optics on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The project’s backers describe it as a “10.2-foot” class instrument that would give astronomers sharper views of exoplanets, supernovae, and the expansion of the universe while undercutting the multibillion dollar price tags associated with past flagships. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife are positioning Lazuli as a more capable and modern version of the Hubble Sp observatory, but one that can be built and launched for hundreds of millions rather than tens of billions, a gap that justifies the talk of a “ridiculously low price” compared with government norms, according to reporting on the Google CEO and the planned 10.2-foot telescope.
The design is intentionally conservative in some respects and aggressive in others. Lazuli is described as a three meter, off axis telescope with capabilities approaching Hubble, but with modern detectors and instruments optimized for studying faint worlds around nearby stars and explosive events across the cosmos. Project scientist Pete Klupa has said the team is “going to build a philanthropic, three-meter, off-axis telescope with capabilities that are approaching Hubble,” a description that underscores how the mission is meant to slot into the scientific niche of the famous observatory while being privately funded. Coverage of the private group’s plans notes that the mirror will be three meters across, that the spacecraft is targeting launch as soon as 2029, and that the total cost is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, all of which frame Lazuli as a bold but not extravagant step beyond Hubble and its 2.4 meter mirrors.
How Schmidt’s philanthropy is reshaping the telescope landscape
Lazuli is only one piece of a broader strategy that treats astronomy as an integrated system rather than a collection of one off instruments. Eric and Wendy Schmidt are backing four next generation telescopes, three on Earth and one in space, through their philanthropic organization Schmidt Sciences. Reporting on the initiative notes that the former CEO of Google is spearheading this quartet of observatories, which includes the space based Lazuli and three ground based projects designed to feed and complement it, a portfolio that reflects the same ecosystem thinking that once guided Google’s expansion across search, cloud, and mobile. The description of the former CEO of Google leading “4 next-gen telescopes, 3 on Earth and 1 in space” captures how tightly coupled these efforts are intended to be, with Earth and orbit working in tandem under the guidance of Eric Schmidt, who previously served as CEO at Google.
The philanthropic model is explicit. Eric and Wendy Schmidt are described as singlehandedly funding the space telescope and three ground based observatories, a level of personal commitment that goes beyond naming rights or partial sponsorship. One report notes that Eric and Wendy Schmidt will fund the space telescope and three observatories on the ground, with the announcement made at a major astronomy meeting, while another emphasizes that the Lazuli mission and its companion facilities are fully funded by the Schmidts through Schmidt Sciences. This approach allows the group to move faster than traditional public programs, but it also concentrates decision making in the hands of a small number of donors, a tradeoff that is already sparking debate in the community about how private capital should shape the future of big science, as seen in coverage of Eric and Wendy and the role of Schmidt Sciences.
The three ground-based pillars: DSA, Argus Array, and LFAST
On the ground, the Schmidts are backing a trio of observatories that each tackle a different slice of the sky. One of the most striking is the DSA radio telescope, an array of 1,600 dishes, each with a six meter antenna, located in a valley in Northern California. The radio dishes will feed a powerful backend designed to localize fast radio bursts and other transient phenomena with high precision, and the entire facility is described as being fully funded by the Schmidts. The scale of 1,600 individual antennas underscores how the project leans on mass produced hardware and software defined processing rather than a single giant dish, a philosophy that mirrors the distributed computing architectures that transformed data centers, as detailed in reports on the DSA and the broader radio telescope plan.
Another pillar is the Argus Array, described as the world’s largest sky survey telescope, which uses a conceptual design built from many small optical units tiled together. A conceptual rendering shows a dense grid of modest telescopes working in unison to monitor the entire visible sky every few minutes, an approach that again favors replication and software over monolithic hardware. The project is funded by Schmidt Sciences and Alex Gerko, and work on Argus Array is already underway at the University of North Carolina, according to a report that notes it was published as part of a feature on developing the world’s largest sky survey telescope. The third ground based element is the Large Aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LFAST, which is described as a wide field optical instrument that will scan the sky rapidly for transient events, rounding out a network in which DSA, Argus, and LFAST feed discoveries and targets to Lazuli, as outlined in coverage of the Argus Array and the planned Large Array.
Why Lazuli’s “ridiculously low” price matters for science
The phrase “ridiculously low price” is not marketing hype so much as a commentary on how distorted expectations have become for space science missions. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, each cost on the order of billions of dollars and took decades from concept to launch, a cadence that leaves entire generations of astronomers waiting for their turn at a flagship. By contrast, Lazuli is framed as a three meter observatory that could launch before the decade’s end, with a budget in the hundreds of millions, a scale that still requires deep pockets but is within reach for a small group of philanthropists. One detailed report describes Lazuli as the first ever private space telescope that could launch before the Decade End, bigger than Hubble and targeting a launch as soon as 2029, while another notes that Schmidt Sciences has announced the plan for Lazuli as a private space telescope with a three meter mirror and three instruments, a package that Eric Schmidt has called “risky but exciting,” according to coverage of The First privately funded mission and the envisioned Hubble Space Telescope successor.
If Lazuli and its ground based partners deliver, they could demonstrate that high impact observatories no longer need to be once in a generation national monuments. The Lazuli Observatory is described as an orbiting observatory larger than the Hubble telescope, funded by Schmidt Sciences, with a design that emphasizes coronagraphy and spectroscopy to study exoplanets that would otherwise be hidden in the glare of their host stars. According to the project’s website, cited in one report, the observatory will focus on worlds that might be habitable and on explosive events that trace the evolution of the universe, a science case that overlaps with but does not duplicate existing missions. Another analysis notes that the Lazuli Space Observatory, the in space asset being developed by the group, is expected to host a three meter mirror and will work in concert with the ground based facilities to study phenomena ranging from fast radio bursts to clouds in the atmospheres of Venus like planets, as described in coverage urging readers to Look at the Lazuli Observatory.
A tech-style moonshot with public science stakes
Eric Schmidt’s move into telescope building is not an isolated vanity project, it is part of a broader pattern of tech leaders applying their fortunes and playbooks to scientific infrastructure. As the former Google CEO, Schmidt helped oversee the scaling of data centers, search, and Android, and he is now applying similar instincts to astronomy by favoring modular hardware, heavy software investment, and tight integration between different facilities. The Lazuli Space Observatory, with its three meter mirror and focus on exoplanets and cosmic transients, is meant to sit at the apex of a pyramid of discovery that starts with wide field surveys and radio arrays on the ground, a structure that mirrors how Google once used web crawlers, indexing systems, and ranking algorithms to feed a single search box, as described in reporting on Lazuli Space Observatory and the broader network of next-gen telescopes.
For the scientific community, the stakes are high. If Lazuli and its siblings succeed, they could normalize a new funding lane in which philanthropists build major observatories that operate alongside, and sometimes ahead of, national facilities, much as private launch companies now complement government rockets. That could accelerate discovery and diversify the kinds of projects that get built, but it also raises questions about governance, data access, and long term support once the initial burst of donor enthusiasm fades. For now, astronomers are watching closely as Eric and Wendy Schmidt, through Schmidt Sciences and partners like Alex Gerko, push ahead with Lazuli, DSA, Argus Array, and LFAST, a suite of instruments that together amount to a tech style moonshot aimed squarely at the deepest questions in the universe.
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