Next week, they will order the spacecraft to unfold the telescope's 33-foot-long camera mast and test its array of 133 mirrors, then begin actual operations 23 days later.

WSJ: NASA NuStar Telescope to Hunt for Black Holes

Mr Mawet and his team, meanwhile, are trying to fabricate prototypes of their design to test on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, which is at a higher altitude, and thus less prone to wobbling air.

ECONOMIST: A way to detect Earth-sized planets around other stars