NASA has set August 30, 2026, as the launch date for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, moving the schedule up by eight months from earlier plans.
The agency aims to send the infrared telescope into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida. It will head to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, joining the James Webb Space Telescope. Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, finished a final inspection of the 7.9-foot primary mirror in late May. They are now preparing to ship the telescope to Kennedy Space Center later this month for further checks and tests. The telescope offers a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble's. It will study dark energy and search for solar systems similar to our own. 'All this work will culminate in Roman delivering never-before-seen views of the universe,' NASA said.
