When NASA was officially established in 1958, Roman was asked if she was interested in establishing a space astronomy program, knowing that taking on this responsibility would mean that she would no longer be able to do research, but it would be an irresistible challenge to start from scratch to develop a plan that would affect astronomy for decades to come, so Roman became the first woman to serve as the agency's first administrative director in 1959 as head of astronomy.
During the establishment and implementation of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Roman believes that he has done two main things: one is to gather astronomers from all over the country and NASA engineers to sit together and plan, let astronomers propose goals to be achieved in space exploration, and at the same time let engineers demonstrate what feasible solutions are available to achieve these goals. The second is to convince the executive branch and members of Congress to agree to allocate funds for this costly project.
As for the origin of the nickname "Mother of Hubble", Roman's explanation in the interview is as follows: Princeton University astronomer Lyman Spitzer has long promoted the establishment of space telescopes above the atmosphere, and he has done a lot to convince people that the Hubble telescope program should be implemented, so he is called the "Father of Hubble". Ed Weller, former chairman of NASA's Science Mission Council, said that if Spitzer was to be called the father of space telescopes, then Roman would be "Mother Hubble."