If all goes to plan, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch after years of development and preparation.
Designs for a new space observatory (then called the Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope) began in 2010, making this next step in the journey highly anticipated and long overdue.
But a successful lift-off isn’t the end of the story. Roman still has far to travel — its final destination is nearly one million miles from Earth, in the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2).
This is what to expect in the days, months, and years after launch.
The Roman Telescope Launch
Roman will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. The planned launch date is Aug. 30, 2026.
The rocket boosters and the main stage will separate first, followed by the second stage and the rocket nose. The telescope will then detach from the launch vehicle, and both the solar panels and sunshade will be deployed.
The First Few Days
In the days to follow, other parts of the telescope will be deployed. This includes Roman’s aperture and a high-gain antenna that will enable astronomers to send commands, monitor the spacecraft’s health, and receive data during its mission.
Explore All OptionsIt also includes the coronagraph, which will turn on within a few days of launch. This complex system of optics, masks, mirrors and sensors is designed to image distant planets.
The period will also see the telescope carry out a mid-course correction to ensure it reaches its destination.
Read More: How Nancy Grace Roman, the ‘Mother of Hubble,’ Became the Namesake of NASA’s New Telescope
In The Following Weeks And Months
The second of Roman’s two instruments will activate roughly two weeks later. The Wide Field Instrument (WFI) is a 300-megapixel camera that offers the same resolution as the Hubble Space Telescope and boasts a field view 100 times larger.
There is still some way to travel, but this time will not go to waste. Astronomers will spend the post-launch phase completing tests and calibrations.
Read More: Roman Could Find Thousands of New Worlds — Here’s How the Telescope Hunts for Exoplanets
Final Destination: The Sun-Earth Lagrange Point
After around three months, Roman should reach its destination, the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), where it will join the James Webb Space Telescope, which has been in orbit since 2022. (Not that there is a threat of them colliding — NASA said it will be easy to keep the two apart.)
Why the L2? It’s a celestial sweet spot one million miles beyond the Earth, on the opposite side of the sun, where the gravitational forces of the two masses are balanced in such a way that a smaller object (say, a space telescope) can roughly match the Earth’s orbit.
This has three key benefits. First, it means Roman will be able to retain a relatively steady orbit while using comparatively little fuel. Second, keeping the sun, Earth, and moon in roughly the same direction allows Roman to observe large portions of the sky with minimal interference. Third, its distance means Roman should be less affected by infrared wavelengths emitted by the sun, Earth, and moon, which, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), can overwhelm and hide radiation from other celestial sources.
From this spot in space, it will carry out its duties, sending approximately 1.4 terabytes of data to Earth every day.
Read More: Why the Roman Telescope Is Bound For a Cosmic Sweet Spot Far Beyond the Moon
A Five-Year Mission
Under current plans, Roman will be in operation for five years, though there is the possibility that the mission will be extended for an additional five years.
According to the ESA, it is expected to collect up to 20 petabytes worth of data during this time — it’s a colossal volume, equivalent to 10 million HD movies.
This information is expected to deepen our understanding of everything from dark matter to exoplanets orbiting stars in our galaxy.
Read More: NASA's Roman Telescope Could Unravel the Mysteries of Dark Energy and Dark Matter
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from NASA: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope press kit
- This article references information from NASA: Mission Timeline
- This article references information from ESA: Why the infrared?
- This article references information from ESA: Roman Fact Sheet
