Great Observatories Maturation: a Review of NASA Astrophysics Development Through Suborbital Rocket and Balloon Programs

TL;DR

This paper reviews how NASA's suborbital rocket and balloon programs have contributed to the development of large astrophysics missions, highlighting their scientific, technological, and training roles over decades.

Contribution

It demonstrates the critical role of suborbital missions in maturing technologies, enabling science, and training investigators for future large-scale NASA astrophysics missions.

Findings

Suborbital instruments have obtained new astrophysical observations.

Suborbital programs have matured key component technologies.

They have served as training grounds for principal investigators.

Abstract

The NASA Great Observatories Maturation Program is a development plan to efficiently and effectively develop large, strategic astrophysics missions. Suborbital rocket and balloon programs have long been a key development tool for enabling large missions in NASA astrophysics. We review the significance of these suborbital missions in the preceding decades to demonstrate their contributions to the Great Observatories Maturation Program for the Habitable Worlds Observatory and beyond. We show that suborbital instruments have obtained new science observations of astrophysical sources across the electromagnetic spectrum, matured high-priority component technologies, and served as a training ground for principal investigators of Explorer-class astrophysics satellites. A brief discussion of emerging CubeSat and SmallSat missions and their place in the NASA astrophysics portfolio is also provided.