When and where was Roman scheduled to launch?

Liftoff was targeted for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, with NASA coverage starting at 6:20 a.m.

What science is Roman designed to do?

Roman is designed to investigate dark energy and dark matter, conduct a statistical census of planetary systems, map billions of galaxies, study black holes, and support broad astrophysics from the solar system to the edge of the observable universe.

Where will Roman operate and how long is the mission?

After separation, Roman was to travel about 1 million miles to orbit the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, the same region occupied by the James Webb Space Telescope. The mission has a five-year primary lifetime with a goal of a five-year extension.

What are Roman's two instruments?

The Wide Field Instrument is a 300-megapixel infrared camera with Hubble-like sharpness and at least 100 times Hubble's field of view. The Coronagraph Instrument will block starlight to directly image giant exoplanets in reflected light.

NASA Targets Aug. 30 Launch for Roman Space Telescope

NASA Targets Aug. 30 Launch for Roman Space Telescope on Falcon Heavy

TL;DR: NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30, to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center.

NASA's next flagship observatory is poised on Florida's Space Coast for a planned early-morning liftoff that would begin a sweeping infrared survey of dark energy, dark matter and distant worlds, according to NASA's coverage announcement titled "NASA Sets Coverage for Roman Space Telescope Launch from Florida."

NASA and SpaceX are targeting liftoff for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with launch coverage beginning at 6:20 a.m. The observatory was encapsulated within its payload fairing at Kennedy ahead of mating to the Falcon Heavy, a step that shields the spacecraft during rollout, ascent and the early phases of flight.

The mission cleared its final major preflight hurdle on Friday, Aug. 28, when agency and SpaceX teams completed the Launch Readiness Review at Kennedy, according to NASA's launch blog post titled "NASA's Roman Space Telescope 'Go' for Launch." That review confirms whether the Falcon Heavy, the Roman observatory, weather and supporting teams are ready for liftoff before proceeding into countdown.

Meteorologists with the U.S. Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45 Weather Squadron predicted a 60% chance of favorable weather conditions for the Aug. 30 attempt. If the schedule holds, the flight would become the sixth NASA primary mission with SpaceX to launch on a Falcon rocket from Kennedy, after IXPE, Psyche, NOAA's GOES-U, Europa Clipper and IMAP.

Countdown and launch-day coverage plan

NASA laid out a two-day sequence of briefings, interviews and live coverage from Kennedy's press site, according to its Aug. 24 coverage announcement.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, NASA scheduled a 9 a.m. EDT mission science briefing in the Kennedy Press Site auditorium with Astrophysics Division director Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Roman senior project scientist Julie McEnery of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Coronagraph Instrument scientist Vanessa Bailey of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Science Operations Center lead Kristen McQuinn of the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Science Support Center lead Lee Armus of Caltech/IPAC.

A 10:30 a.m. EDT prelaunch news conference was set to follow in the same auditorium with Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicky Fox, Roman program executive Lucas Paganini, project manager Jackie Townsend of Goddard, launch director Denton Gibson of NASA's Launch Services Program, SpaceX director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs Julianna Scheiman, and launch weather officer Justin McReynolds of the 45th Weather Squadron.

NASA also listed an 11:45 a.m. expected jet flyby by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman past the Roman spacecraft and Falcon Heavy on the launchpad, to be shown live on the same stream as the news conference, subject to weather and operational considerations. In-person interviews were scheduled for 12 p.m. in the Kennedy Press News Center with Fox, Paganini, acting Sciences and Exploration Directorate director Dalia Kirschbaum of Goddard, project scientist Josh Schlieder of Goddard, flight segment and observatory manager Jason Hylan of Goddard, Coronagraph project scientist Bertrand Mennesson of JPL, L3Harris Technologies president Jeff Hanke and program manager Wendy Minotti, and BAE Systems vice president Bonnie Patterson and director Sarah Lipscy.

On Sunday, Aug. 30, NASA planned to begin live launch coverage at 6:20 a.m. EDT, with liftoff targeted at 7:26 a.m. and a postlaunch news conference at 9:30 a.m. featuring Isaacman, Fox, Townsend, McEnery and Gibson. Media were invited to ask questions in person or by phone, with dial-in details available from the Kennedy newsroom no later than one hour before each event.

Why Roman matters for dark energy and dark matter

Roman is NASA's next-generation observatory designed to explore some of the universe's biggest mysteries, including dark energy, according to the agency's coverage announcement. Its crisp, sweeping surveys are intended to help scientists investigate dark energy and dark matter, discover and characterize exoplanets, map billions of galaxies, study black holes, and explore objects from the solar system to the edge of the observable universe.

The observatory will pair sharp infrared vision with a field of view at least 100 times larger than the agency's Hubble Space Telescope, allowing it to scan vast, deep swaths of sky rather than studying one narrow target at a time. NASA's explainer titled "9 Things to Know About NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope" says each survey will sample such a large volume of the cosmos that the mission will also support a broad range of additional science, from objects in the outer solar system and exploding stars to growing black holes and galaxies by the billions.

Roman's data will be made public as soon as it is processed, allowing many teams to analyze it simultaneously. That open-data approach reflects the vision of the mission's namesake, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief of astronomy, who championed space-based observatories above Earth's hazy atmosphere while making their data broadly available to the scientific community.

Roman, who lived from 1925 to 2018, is known as the "mother" of Hubble and was the driving force behind NASA's Great Observatories program, which included Hubble along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope.

Two instruments built for panoramic surveys

The spacecraft carries two instruments that enable its survey strategy, according to NASA's explainer.

The Wide Field Instrument is a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will give Roman the same sharpness, or angular resolution, as Hubble but with a field of view at least 100 times larger. Each Roman image will capture a patch of sky about 1.5 times bigger than the apparent size of a full Moon. The instrument is capable of obtaining extremely crisp images and sensitive spectroscopic data in visible and near-infrared light.

The Coronagraph Instrument is designed to demonstrate advanced technologies for directly imaging planets around other stars. It will block the glare from stars to reveal faint reflected light from planets in orbit around them, including giant worlds that are older, colder and in closer orbits than the hot, young super-Jupiters that direct imaging has mainly revealed so far.

The telescope's primary mirror measures 2.4 meters in diameter, and the observatory is designed to observe wavelengths from 0.48 to 2.30 micrometers, spanning visible light and near-infrared regions, according to mission descriptions carried in prelaunch coverage. Teams encapsulated the observatory inside its payload fairing on Friday, Aug. 21, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy before mating it to the Falcon Heavy.

Million-mile trip to Lagrange Point 2

After launch and separation from the rocket, Roman will travel to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, about 1 million miles from Earth, according to NASA. At L2, gravity from the Sun and Earth works together with an object's motion around the Sun to hold it roughly in place, giving Roman a relatively steady orbit without using much fuel.

Roman will join NASA's James Webb Space Telescope at L2. Like Webb, Roman will trace out a large orbit around the actual L2 point — much larger than the Moon's orbit around Earth — and the two observatories will easily be kept far apart.

Roman will have a primary mission lifetime of five years and is designed to support an additional five-year extended mission. Fuel is expected to be the mission's life-limiting resource, and while NASA does not currently have an ability to service observatories at L2, Roman is designed to be refuelable.

The spacecraft also carries the names of more than 1.3 million people who submitted them this summer to be added to a memory card attached to a plaque on the observatory for the journey to L2.

International teamwork with Webb, Euclid and Rubin

Roman will work in tandem with many other NASA-led and international missions to provide a more complete view of the universe, according to NASA.

Roman's large panoramas are expected to uncover targets that Hubble could follow up using infrared, visible and ultraviolet light for a more comprehensive view. Webb can then use its larger mirror and more powerful vision to deliver more detailed observations, while Roman can view regions around objects Hubble or Webb observe to offer context.

The mission will also complement Euclid, an European Space Agency mission with key contributions from NASA. Euclid will observe a larger area of sky than Roman, though with less detail, and since their survey areas will overlap scientists can use Roman's higher-quality data to apply corrections to Euclid's data and extend those refinements over Euclid's much larger area. Scientists can also pair Roman's infrared data with visible-light observations from the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a National Science Foundation-Department of Energy collaboration.

ESA's role extends to flight hardware and operations, according to ESA's preview titled "Cutting-edge infrared space telescope Roman set to launch." ESA is contributing star trackers, batteries, detectors for the coronagraph instrument and communications support through its deep-space ground station network, including data download using the 35-meter antenna in New Norcia, Australia. Through its Mission of Opportunity programme, Europe contributes scientific expertise aimed at guiding and maximizing the mission's scientific return.