Hubble Space Telescope had many “parents” – people who conceived it, lobbied for it, designed it, and mapped out its science mission. But none was more important than Nancy Grace Roman. She served as NASA’s first chief astronomer, and later as director of one of its field centers. She pushed, prodded, and cajoled for the telescope for decades. And once it was approved, she helped get it running.

Roman was born 100 years ago today, in Nashville. In sixth grade, she founded her school’s first astronomy club. A year later, she decided to become an astronomer. Despite discouragement from teachers, she stuck with it. She earned her Ph.D., from the University of Chicago, in 1949. Over the next few years she studied the stars, using telescopes at McDonald Observatory and elsewhere.

Academia didn’t offer much opportunity for women at the time, so Roman went into government work. And soon after NASA was established, she was hired as chief astronomer. Among other things, she led the development of the first space telescopes – one series to watch the Sun, another to study the stars.

Roman died on Christmas Day in 2018. But her legacy is far from over. NASA’s next big space telescope will hunt for planets in other star systems, probe the nature of dark energy, plot the evolution of the universe, and more. The telescope is scheduled for launch in two years: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Script by Damond Benningfield