SpaceX is preparing to launch NASA's $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The mission aims to study dark energy, dark matter, and planets beyond our solar system.
The telescope is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 3:26 PM Moscow time from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The telescope will enter orbit approximately 1.6 million km from Earth, and observations are expected to begin in December.
The mission is designed to last between five and ten years. It will study the influence of dark matter and dark energy on distant stars and galaxies. Scientists hope the data obtained will provide insights into the expansion of the universe.
The Roman telescope will also search for exoplanets, including those that may be similar to Earth. The telescope's mirror is comparable in size to that of the Hubble Space Telescope, but the Roman Wide Field Camera is capable of covering an area approximately 100 times larger. NASA estimates that the Roman telescope will map the sky approximately 1,000 times faster than Hubble.
The spacecraft will primarily collect infrared light. It is also equipped with a coronagraph—a device for blocking starlight, potentially allowing scientists to directly observe faint planets orbiting nearby stars.
After launch, the telescope will spend several months en route to its destination and deploying its instruments. Mission teams will then conduct approximately three months of testing, after which science observations will begin at the end of the year. The first images are expected in 2027.
The mission's development began in the early 2010s and was plagued by years of difficulties and mounting costs.
The first Trump administration attempted to cancel the project in 2018, and no funding was included in the early 2025 budget proposal. Congress blocked the initial repeal attempt, and funding was eventually included in the final budget request.