NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched on 30 August 2026 at 7:26 a.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The observatory is travelling to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), about one million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth.
What Roman will study
Roman is designed to investigate dark energy, dark matter and exoplanets, and to support a wide range of general astrophysics. It carries two instruments:
- Wide Field Instrument: a 300-megapixel infrared camera with 18 detectors
- Coronagraph Instrument: a technology demonstration for directly imaging Jupiter-like planets around other stars
According to NASA, Roman will return about 1.4 terabytes of data per day.
Timeline
After a commissioning period of about three months, NASA expects Roman's first images in early 2027.
"Roman is exactly the kind of success story we want to see across NASA."Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator
An international team
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the mission. Partners include NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/IPAC, the Space Telescope Science Institute, BAE Systems, L3Harris Technologies and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, with contributions from ESA, JAXA, CNES and the Max Planck Institute.
Related reading
- Falcon Heavy Explained: How SpaceX Launches Heavy Payloads
- Lagrange Points Explained: Why SOHO and Webb Park Far From Earth
- NASA Advances PRIMA, the First Probe Explorer Far-Infrared Telescope
Sources
- NASA, "NASA's Dark Universe-Seeking Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launches", 30 August 2026: nasa.gov
Cover image: Falcon Heavy carrying the Roman Space Telescope, 30 August 2026. Image: NASA/John Kraus, images.nasa.gov. NASA images are generally not subject to copyright in the United States.