  The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the
Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history,
technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based
telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets
orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of
habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with
instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and
planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a
space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities
at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities
allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA
astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out
nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary
systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new
explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external
galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great
Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will
account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx
architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is
diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two
starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their
own dedicated instrument.
