UV Astronomical Facilities for the 21st Century

Abstract Since the first dedicated space astronomy satellites in the late 1960s and early 1970s provided access to the ultraviolet wavelengths blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, this wavelength range has proved to be of great importance to astrophysics. Since the launch of IUE in 1978, astronomers have had continuous spectroscopic access, now provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. However, Hubble is now 35 years old and its mission may end in the relatively near future. This prospect has exercised space scientists for some time, resulting in a variety of plans to extend UV astronomy into the future. Indeed, there are now many possible future missions in various stages of development and with different launch prospects. The aim of this paper is to provide a summary of known potential future UV astronomy missions, describe their expected capabilities and indicate their stage of development. While we have tried to be comprehensive, we anticipate that this will not be a complete list, as new ideas are always being considered and are not always visible to the community, particularly in their early stages.

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Publication Details

Journal
Space Science Reviews
Published
2026-11-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-026-01335-1
Primary Topic
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

UV Astronomical Facilities for the 21st Century

Mikhail E. Sachkov, Shingo Kameda, Annapurni Subramaniam, Kevin C. France et al.
Space Science Reviews
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
article

UV Astronomical Facilities for the 21st Century

Mikhail E. Sachkov, Shingo Kameda, Annapurni Subramaniam, Kevin C. France, Martin Adrian Barstow, Fabio Favata, Quentin Andrew Parker, Benjamin Wilcock, Ana Inés Gómez de Castro, Norbert Werner, Andrew J Battisti, Li Ji, Xiaoting Fu
article en

Abstract

Abstract Since the first dedicated space astronomy satellites in the late 1960s and early 1970s provided access to the ultraviolet wavelengths blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, this wavelength range has proved to be of great importance to astrophysics. Since the launch of IUE in 1978, astronomers have had continuous spectroscopic access, now provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. However, Hubble is now 35 years old and its mission may end in the relatively near future. This prospect has exercised space scientists for some time, resulting in a variety of plans to extend UV astronomy into the future. Indeed, there are now many possible future missions in various stages of development and with different launch prospects. The aim of this paper is to provide a summary of known potential future UV astronomy missions, describe their expected capabilities and indicate their stage of development. While we have tried to be comprehensive, we anticipate that this will not be a complete list, as new ideas are always being considered and are not always visible to the community, particularly in their early stages.

Space Science ReviewsVol. 222(8)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES), Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), Rikkyo University (JP), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IN), University of Leicester (GB), Queen Mary University of London (GB), The University of Western Australia (AU), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Masaryk University (CZ), Purple Mountain Observatory (CN), Institute of Astronomy (RU), University of Hong Kong (HK)
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
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