NASA has selected PRIMA, the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics, to advance into Phase B development, the first mission in a new class of astrophysics missions called Probe Explorers within the agency’s long-running Explorers Program. Subject to a confirmation review of its technical, programmatic and cost readiness, PRIMA’s project cost is capped at 1.2 billion dollars, excluding launch and other non-project costs, with the observatory targeted to launch in 2033 for a planned five-year mission. “The PRIMA mission is humanity’s next window into the deep universe. It will unveil the obscure across cosmic time to better understand the formation of planets, stars, black holes, and even how water on Earth came to be,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Carrying a 5.9-foot telescope, PRIMA will survey the universe in far-infrared light, a wavelength range that helps bridge the gap between existing infrared observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope and radio telescopes, addressing questions spanning the origins of planets beyond the solar system, how galaxies and their black holes have grown over cosmic history, and how dust and heavy elements have built up in the universe over time. “A single mission alone can’t probe all the universe’s mysteries. But by extending the survey capabilities of our fleet into far-infrared wavelengths with PRIMA, we’re enabling an incredibly comprehensive look at the cosmos,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division. “With our Webb and Roman space telescopes, we set a cadence of launching premiere-class missions in both halves of the decade. We’re going to keep that up and kick off the next decade with PRIMA.”

A MISSION CLASS WITH A LONG PEDIGREE

The Probe Explorers class was established following a recommendation in the National Academies’ 2020 Decadal Survey, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s, and PRIMA was chosen from competing concept studies for its scientific merit, development feasibility and use of technologies that could support future large missions. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will manage the mission, with contributions from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center, and from seven international partners: France’s CNES, Italy’s ASI, Germany’s DLR, the Canadian Space Agency, South Korea’s KASI, Japan’s JAXA and the UK Space Agency. PRIMA joins the Explorers Program’s long run of low-cost, principal investigator-led missions, which has launched more than 100 spacecraft since Explorer 1 discovered Earth’s radiation belts in 1958, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer missions, both of which led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.