Technicians have completed the construction of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The Roman observatory is slated to launch no later than May 2027, with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026. The mission will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with its deep, crisp, sweeping views of space.
More than a thousand technicians and engineers assembled Roman from millions of individual components. Many parts were built and tested simultaneously to save time. Now that the observatory is assembled, it will undergo a spate of testing prior to shipping to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in summer 2026.
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NASA’s freshly assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with its deep, crisp, sweeping infrared views of space. The mission will transform virtually every branch of astronomy and bring us closer to understanding the mysteries of dark energy, dark matter, and how common planets like Earth are throughout our galaxy. Roman is on track for launch by May 2027, with teams working toward a launch as early as fall 2026. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The Optical Telescope Assembly is the heart of the Roman observatory. It consists of a primary mirror, which was designed and built at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, plus nine additional mirrors and supporting structures and electronics.
The Roman team got a jumpstart by receiving the telescope’s primary mirror, which will collect and focus light from cosmic objects near and far, from another government agency and then modifying it to meet NASA’s needs. Using this mirror, Roman will capture stunning space vistas with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s.
Roman will peer through dust and across vast stretches of space and time …