Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is Ready for Launch
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in September 2026. That is nearly eight months ahead of its required launch readiness date of May 2027.
In its final years of construction, the observatory underwent rigorous environmental tests designed to prove it can withstand the demanding journey from Earth to space.
These environmental tests included blasting the telescope with the intense sound of a rocket launch, vibrating the observatory while enclosed in a protective clean tent, another launch simulation, and placing it inside a thermal vacuum chamber where it was cooled to the extreme operating temperatures of space.
Each of these tests proved Roman's worthiness for early flight and is a testament to the hard work from the entire team.
Music Credit:
Astral Geometry by Jon R Mohr
Fast Lane by Ruinz Ason, Simon James, Von Hemingway, William Riddims
Voice over: Julie McEnerey, Project Scientist and Shawn Domagal-Goldman Astrophysics Division Director
Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts
A vertical version of the video above. This is available for download with and without captions.
Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
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Videographers
- Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
- Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
- Rob Andreoli (eMITS)
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Drone pilot
- Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
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Camera operator
- John D. Philyaw (eMITS)
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Animator
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (eMITS)
Related
- ID: 15080
![NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is prepped for launch, and one phase of Roman is ending. It began with the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, where the community called for a wide-field infrared survey telescope: WFIRST. This was Roman’s start. Institutes and businesses across the country began developing new hardware to support this mission. At the observatory’s heart was a mirror the same size as Hubble’s and a set of 18 state-of-the-art detectors that allowed for both a massive field of view and extremely high angular resolution. This combination would allow Roman to create vast and detailed surveys of the universe unlike anything seen before. Roman also holds a Coronagraph Instrument to test hardware never before flown in space. It will be able to see distant planets orbiting other stars and is a major step toward finding life outside the solar system.Much of Roman’s hardware was developed and built in-house at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Other key systems came from places like NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), BAE Systems, and L3Harris. Beginning in 2023, all the parts converged on Goddard. Inside Goddard’s enormous clean room, a team of dedicated engineers and technicians spent over three years assembling the pieces. Throughout the process, they also used Goddard’s testing facilities to evaluate the hardware’s ability to survive launch and space. Pieces, assembled sections, and finally the entire observatory were subjected to tests like vibration and acoustic shaking, thermal vacuum freezing, and centrifuge g-force loading.The early completion and future success of the Roman Space Telescope is a testament to the unwavering commitment and effort of thousands of people working together toward a common goal. Thanks to all their efforts, Roman will broaden our understanding of the universe and our place within it.Music: “Caelum,” Dan Thiessen [BMI], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.](/vis/a010000/a015000/a015080/RomanGoForLaunch_Still_searchweb.png)
Produced Video - ID: 15040
- ID: 14997
- ID: 14993
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
This page was last updated on Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 3:19 PM EDT.