[REVISION HISTORY]

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched and instrumented

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2026-09-01 14:41 UTC → 2026-09-08 01:05 UTC · added ~~removed~~

NASA successfully launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday, August 30, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida. Carried into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the observatory is on a roughly 100-day transit to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), located approximately 1.5 to 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. The mission, with a lifecycle cost of approximately $4.316 billion, aims to investigate dark energy, dark matter, and the accelerating expansion of the universe. It is designed to work alongside observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Euclid mission to provide a comprehensive understanding of cosmic evolution. The telescope features a 2.4-meter primary mirror, similar in size to the Hubble Space Telescope, but utilizes a Wide Field Instrument that provides a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, allowing for significantly faster sky surveys. On September 1, 2026, the mission reached a significant milestone with the successful activation of its Coronagraph Instrument. This system uses advanced optics and masks to block starlight, allowing for the direct imaging of planets and dusty disks around nearby stars. ~~The instrument will now undergo several months of calibration and testing. Once fully operational,~~ Following its separation from the ~~telescope will utilize~~ launch vehicle, the ~~transit method, microlensing, and direct imaging to detect exoplanets. The mission expects~~ telescope is undergoing a critical checkout phase to ~~uncover approximately 100,000 new exoplanets, significantly increasing the current known count. Beyond discovery,~~ test the complete system chain in space, including instrument focus, image sharpness, data ~~aims to address questions regarding~~ rates, and the ~~frequency~~ deployment of solar ~~systems like our own~~ shields and communication components. NASA expects to release the ~~habitability of Earth-like worlds, potentially identifying targets for future projects such as~~ first major scientific infrared images from the ~~proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory.~~ mission in early 2027, following a multi-month commissioning and calibration phase.

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