NASA has finalized media coverage plans for the prelaunch and launch activities of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to lift off no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30. The telescope will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with launch coverage beginning at 6:20 a.m.
Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the Roman Space Telescope will combine sharp infrared vision with a field of view at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. According to NASA, the observatory is designed to investigate dark energy and dark matter, discover and characterize exoplanets, map billions of galaxies, study black holes, and explore objects ranging from the solar system to the edge of the observable universe.
After launch and separation from the rocket, the telescope will travel to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, about one million miles from Earth. The mission has a five-year primary lifetime with a goal of operating for 10 years, and NASA said the telescope's science data will be publicly available after processing.
Live coverage will stream through multiple platforms on the NASA website, including a livestream and blog updates as countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and launch photos will be available shortly after liftoff. NASA's coverage includes a 9 a.m. science briefing, a 10:30 a.m. prelaunch news conference, and a 9:30 p.m. postlaunch news conference, all at the NASA Kennedy Press Site auditorium.
The Roman telescope is managed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with participation by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech/IPAC, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and scientists from various research institutions. Primary industrial partners include BAE Systems Inc., L3Harris Technologies, and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging. The European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, France's CNES, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany also have contributed to the mission.
