14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this month, NASA was allowed to announce to the general public that it received a donation from the secretive US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) last year, consisting of two space telescopes that are about as good, if not better, than the Hubble Space Telescope.
The instruments have a similar aperture to the iconic observatory, but they also feature secondary mirrors, which enable an even higher resolution than Hubble is capable of. NASA is currently pondering what to do with the telescopes, since its budget is extremely low.
NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator, John Grunsfeld, said that the two pieces of hardware are of “very high quality.” When contacting the American space agency about them, the NRO referred to them as pieces of “residual hardware” from past projects.
Currently stored at Rochester, New York-based ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems, the telescopes are awaiting to be repurposed by NASA. Unfortunately, the soonest they can be launch into space is 2020, Space reports.