NASA Sends 2.4-Meter Roman Telescope to Kennedy for September Falcon Heavy Launch
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jun 2
NASA Sends 2.4-Meter Roman Telescope to Kennedy for September Falcon Heavy Launch
3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 2
Summary
NASA said June 1 the completed Roman Space Telescope is leaving Goddard Space Flight Center for Kennedy Space Center aboard the Pegasus barge, starting final launch preparations for a liftoff as early as September from Launch Complex 39A.
The observatory pairs a 2.4-meter mirror with a field of view about 100 times wider than Hubble’s, positioning it to map huge swaths of sky and study dark energy, cosmic evolution and exoplanets.
Roman is expected to find about 100,000 new planets by surveying roughly 100 million stars, using transits and gravitational microlensing to detect worlds—including small, wide-orbit planets—that current methods often miss.
The mission, once called WFIRST, survived Trump-era cancellation proposals in 2019 and 2020 after Congress kept funding it, and now heads toward launch as NASA’s next flagship observatory after James Webb.
After nearly being cancelled for its cost, how did the Roman telescope finish under budget and ahead of schedule?
Will Roman's discovery of 100,000 new exoplanets finally reveal how common planets like Earth truly are across our galaxy?
With dark energy possibly weakening, will Roman's deep survey confirm our universe is heading for a fundamental change?
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Transforming Astronomy with Wide-Field Infrared Surveys and Open Data
Overview
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is nearing its much-anticipated launch, following the legacy of the Hubble Space Telescope. By November 25, 2025, technicians had fully assembled Roman at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, marking a major milestone and showing the mission’s advanced readiness. This progress was made possible after the President signed an appropriations bill, giving NASA the funding needed to bring Roman to the launch pad and support other missions. With SpaceX chosen as the launch provider, the project demonstrates NASA’s ability to manage complex, large-scale observatories and prepare for a new era of space exploration.