Overview
- The telescope, which is cleared for liftoff on Aug. 30, has been fueled, encapsulated and moved to SpaceX’s Launch Complex 39A hangar with NASA’s live coverage starting about 6:20 a.m. EDT on launch day.
- Roman pairs a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument that images Hubble-like detail over a field about 100 times larger with a coronagraph technology demonstrator built to directly image and spectrally test exoplanets.
- After separation the observatory will transit to the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point and spend roughly 100 days deploying, aligning optics and commissioning instruments before routine science operations begin.
- NASA expects Roman to send roughly 1–1.4 terabytes of science data per day to ground stations in New Mexico, Australia and Japan and to make those data publicly available for researchers, students and citizen scientists.
- Built by Ball Aerospace on a converted NRO satellite platform, the $4.3 billion mission arrived ahead of schedule and under budget and will run a five-year prime survey with a planned five-year extension option.