BOULDER – A Boulder-based aerospace company will have a hand in the construction of a $3.2 billion telescope for NASA.

The Daily Camera reported Thursday that Ball Aerospace was awarded a contract worth about $113.2 million to build primary instrument components for NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.

The new telescope is expected to be ready for launch by the mid-2020s and is being called the Hubble Space Telescope’s “wide-eyed cousin.”

Claire Saravia with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland says it will be capable of taking some of the biggest pictures of the universe.

According to a statement by NASA, Ball Aerospace will “design, analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, test and evaluate” an instrument with the ability to capture 300-megapixel images 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Information from: Daily Camera, www.dailycamera.com