NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope began a three‑month journey covering roughly one million miles toward its final orbit. The observatory lifted off at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Once operational, Roman will combine sharp infrared vision with an unusually wide view of the sky. That combination will let astronomers look at huge regions of space while also peering far back into cosmic history. Its main goals are to study dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets. The telescope’s sweeping surveys are also expected to lead to many discoveries beyond those core objectives.
“Roman is exactly the kind of success story we want to see across NASA,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Delivered ahead of schedule and on budget, this mission reflects more than a decade of dedication from the NASA workforce and our industry partners. Now, Roman will give us a new atlas of the universe, push the boundaries of discovery, and demonstrate what is possible when America’s space program pairs bold ambition with disciplined execution.”
Controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, started receiving telemetry from Roman seven minutes after launch. Falcon Heavy performed as planned and separated from the observatory 31 minutes after liftoff. After detaching from the rocket’s center core, the two boosters returned safely to the launch site, where they can be refurbished.
“Roman will be a discovery machine that will bring us closer than ever before to answering humanity’s most profound questions about our cosmic history,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With its large field of view and fast survey speeds, Roman will usher us into a new era of discovery and make the invisible visible, setting the foundation for humanity’s search for life beyond our solar system.”
During the first part of the mission, Roman communicates with controllers using the Near Space Network, a system of ground stations and relay satellites that handles tracking, telemetry, and commands. Roughly 70 minutes after launch, communications shift to NASA’s Deep Space Network, which will help guide the observatory toward the second Sun‑Earth Lagrange point, or L2, about one million miles from Earth.