Integrating The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Two Halves

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s telescope and two instruments onto the instrument carrier, marking the completion of the Roman payload. Now the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will begin joining the payload to the spacecraft.

The telescope and instruments were mounted to Roman’s instrument carrier and precisely aligned in the largest clean room at Goddard, where the observatory is being assembled. Now, the whole assembly is being attached to the Roman spacecraft, which will deliver the observatory to its orbit and enable it to function once there.

In the footage below technicians carefully lift the outer portion of the telescope, called the OSD or Outer Barrel, SASS, Deployable Aperature Cover, and place it over the internal half. Long guard rails keep the two halves in perfect position.

The solar panels open shortly after the two havles joined, marking a nearly deployed and fully assembled observatory.