NASA and SpaceX are counting down to the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, with liftoff targeted for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The rocket carrying Roman is a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, and live coverage is scheduled to begin at 6:20 a.m.
Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the Roman Space Telescope is built to tackle some of the deepest questions in astrophysics. Its infrared instruments will cover a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, giving scientists an unprecedented wide-angle window on the cosmos. Among its primary goals: investigating dark energy and dark matter, mapping billions of galaxies, discovering and characterizing exoplanets, and studying objects ranging from our own solar system out to the observable universe's edge.
After separating from the Falcon Heavy, Roman will make its way to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point — known as L2 — roughly one million miles from Earth, the same orbital neighborhood occupied by the James Webb Space Telescope. The mission is designed for a five-year primary run, with hopes of operating for a full decade. All science data will be made publicly available after processing.
A postlaunch news conference is planned for 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, featuring NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Nicky Fox, Roman Project Manager Jackie Townsend, Senior Project Scientist Julie McEnery, and Launch Director Denton Gibson.
This story was originally reported by Space Coast Daily.
