Future prospects for spectroscopic and direct work: optical and UV

A description of the main features and proposed instrumentation of the 2.4 m Space Telescope is given. Highlights of work that can be planned on active nuclei of galaxies, QSOs and BL Lac objects are briefly outlined, involving spectroscopy over wavelengths from 1200 A to 1 mm, direct imaging with 0''.1 resolution, and the capability for 0''.1 resolution along the spectrograph slit. The resolution, the much reduced sky background, and the full wavlength coverage also make possible important observations relevant to cosmology. (Auth.)