NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, beginning its mission to explore the universe's hidden realms. The $4.3 billion observatory is headed to an observation point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, joining the James Webb Space Telescope in surveying the cosmos.
Once operational, the bus-sized telescope will utilize its massive field of view, over 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, to observe the universe with unparalleled speed and scope. Scientists anticipate Roman will discover thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of exoplanets, billions of galaxies, and tens of billions of stars. Its wide-reaching capabilities are expected to help astronomers understand dark matter and dark energy, which constitute most of the universe but remain poorly understood.
Roman's primary instrument is a wide-field infrared camera that is significantly faster than Hubble's. The telescope also carries an experimental coronagraph designed to block out starlight, enabling it to directly image exoplanets. These observations will complement the work of Webb, which has a narrower, more focused vision capable of observing objects from the universe's early history.
Named after NASA's first chief astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman, the telescope is the agency's first space telescope named after a woman. Roman, who died in 2018 at age 93, was instrumental in establishing NASA's astronomy program and advocated for space-based observatories. Her vision for better astronomical observation is carried forward by Roman's mission to tackle some of the universe's most profound questions.
The telescope is designed with the potential for in-orbit refueling, which could extend its operational life if robotic refueling technology becomes available in the future. The Roman Space Telescope's primary mirror is comparable in size to Hubble's, measuring nearly 8 feet in diameter, and is constructed using surplus mirrors from a spy satellite program. The telescope's launch was reportedly ahead of schedule and within budget.