Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018) was NASA’s first chief astronomer, its first female executive, the “Mother of Hubble,” and the woman who built its space-astronomy programme from scratch — yet she remained far less famous than the telescope she made possible.

NASA's first chief astronomer created its space-astronomy programme, helped turn Hubble into a real mission and now has a newly launched observatory carrying her name. The post Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018) was NASA’s first chief astronomer, its first female …