FLORIDA: The Roman Space Telescope launch is set for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30 from Kennedy Space Centre aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
NASA’s latest countdown confirms liftoff from Launch Complex 39A. The mission has completed its flight-readiness review and entered final launch preparations.
NASA+ is scheduled to begin launch coverage at 6:20 a.m. EDT (3:20 p.m. PKT), just over an hour before the planned liftoff.
The telescope has already been enclosed inside Falcon Heavy’s protective payload fairing ahead of integration with the rocket. Additionally, NASA said Roman’s field of view will be at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s. This will allow it to conduct wide-area surveys of the cosmos.
Roman’s primary science goals include studying dark energy, dark matter and exoplanets. Its instruments will survey large numbers of galaxies and planetary systems. Meanwhile, a coronagraph technology demonstration will block starlight to improve observations of planets and planet-forming disks around nearby stars.
Read: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Set for September Launch
After launch, Roman will travel to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2), about one million miles from Earth. NASA lists a five-year primary mission, with a goal of operating for up to 10 years.
The observatory is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer. She played a central role in advancing space-based astronomy and became known as the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.
