NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Roman Space Telescope

Launch Time
NET October, 2026

Launch is targeted for No Earlier Then (NET) October 2026, and No Later Then (NLT) May 2027.

Watch

Rocket

Falcon Heavy
Image Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX
Status: Active
Price: $97.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 22,819 kN
Payload to LEO: 63,800 kg
Payload to GTO: 26,700 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 2
Rocket Height: 70.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 5.2 m
Fairing Height: 13.0 m

Mission Details

Roman Space Telescope

AKA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope

The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters in diameter (7.9 feet) and is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror. The Roman Space Telescope will have two instruments, the Wide Field Instrument, and the Coronagraph Instrument.

The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, capturing more of the sky with less observing time. As the primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument will measure light from a billion galaxies over the course of the mission lifetime. It will perform a microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way to find ~2,600 exoplanets. The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets. (https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/about.html)

Manufacturer: Goddard Space Flight Center
Operator: NASA
Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 10,150.0 kg
Heliocentric Orbit

Location

LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA