Working on The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Long Exposure Timelapses

Released Wednesday, April 8, 2026

ID: 14993

- Videography:
- Sophia Roberts

Building a telescope like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope requires long hours focusing on small regions, repeated with precision day after day. These timelapses capture that slow and steady pace with long-exposure images stitched together to highlight the continuous work behind the scenes.

In much the same way, the telescope itself will stitch together vast numbers of exposures into sweeping scientific surveys. By observing millions of stars over time, it will track changes across the cosmos capturing exploding stars, belching black holes, neutron star mergers, and more phenomena as they unfold.

A stationary timelapse featuring the telescope's Wide Field Instrument. A clean tent stands behind the telescope, which protects the telescope during environmental testing outside of the cleanroom.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

A stationary timelapse showing technicians working on the telescope's blanketing. The matte gray wrap material helps regulate temperature fluctuations in space and protects the observatory from radiation. Each piece is carefully fitted and shrinks a bit once in space.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Stationary timelapse of technicians and engineers preparing to deploy the solar panels.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Stationary timelapse of technicians preparing the Deployable Aperature Cover (DAC) for testing. The cover will protect the telescope from stray light, similar to the brim of a hat. Since the cover is designed to open in space, engineers have a weight offloading system to verify the mechanisms work on Earth.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts