NASA Interview Opportunity: Catch Last Look at NASA’s Newest Space Telescope

NASA’s newest cosmic detective, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is complete and in final preparations for launch. Before it ships to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA is inviting media for one last look at the fully assembled telescope in the clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Join NASA experts on Thursday, May 21, between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. EDT, for interviews and a live look into the clean room.

Quick Summary:
- Ready for launch!: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is ready for launch as soon as early September, eight months ahead of schedule and on budget.
- Mega-wide camera: Roman’s 300-megapixel camera will capture wide-field images of the universe.
- Cosmic detective: One of Roman’s primary goals is to help solve the mystery of dark energy, a force that is causing the universe to expand faster and faster.
- Exoplanet spotter: Roman is equipped with a powerful coronagraph, or “starglasses,” allowing researchers to directly image gas giant planets and dust disks around other stars by blocking the stars’ light.
- Ultimate galactic survey: By capturing millions of galaxies in a single image, Roman will weave together the most comprehensive atlas of the cosmos.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — named after Nancy Grace Roman, who became the agency’s first-ever chief of astronomy in 1959 — is a powerhouse that combines the precision of a high-powered telescope with a wide-angle lens designed to piece together the big picture of the universe. Most telescopes can capture only tiny slivers of the sky at one time, comparable to holding a single grain of sand at arm’s length against the vast night sky. However, Roman will capture 100 times more sky in one image than a standard image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

This new view into the cosmos will help astronomers piece together a panoramic view of the universe. Roman will return more than 1.4 terabytes of data daily. If this data were printed, the stack of papers would tower 330 miles high after a single day. All of Roman’s data will be freely accessible by the public.

Roman doesn't just see wide — it sees deep, making it far more likely to catch the universe’s most elusive cosmic events, and even shed light on dark energy. Beyond mapping the universe, Roman will also carry a cutting-edge Coronograph Instrument that will block the light of distant stars so we can directly image faint orbiting planets that would otherwise be lost in the glare. As a technology demonstration, this coronograph will pave the way for future observatories to image Earth-like worlds.

Roman is key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe, one wide-field image at a time.

- Live interviews are available Thursday, May 21, from 6 a.m. - 1 p.m. EDT
- Click here to request an interview: https://forms.gle/YSMy9SXCZhFhqv2p8
- Requests sent via the above form will have scheduling priority.
- Please do not email requests.
- For more information check out:
nasa.gov/roman
Frequently Asked Questions about Roman
On social media @NASARoman

Suggested Anchor Intro:
A brand new space telescope is about to transform our understanding of the universe, and it’s almost ready for the launchpad. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a first-of-its-kind observatory on a mission to map the universe one panoramic frame at a time. And it’s ready to go eight months ahead of schedule!

We’re taking you behind the scenes for a last look at the telescope before it begins its million-mile journey to reveal the secrets of dark energy and hunt for distant, hidden worlds.

Joining us now is xxx from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to tell us all about this technological marvel.

Suggested Questions:
1. NASA’s newest space telescope is complete, and we’re about to get an inside look at it before it ships out for launch. Let’s start with a live look at the telescope before we get into how cool this mission is. What are you feeling as you look at this telescope in all its glory?
2. Now that we’ve seen this telescope, let’s talk about this mission. What is the Roman Space Telescope, and what are some of the things we hope to learn from this telescope?
Roman is currently tracking eight months ahead of schedule —an impressive feat! Tell us about your role on this mission and what it’s been like to work on this telescope.
3. This telescope is about the size of a semi-truck trailer, and has a camera the size of a refrigerator! Can you talk about some of the cutting-edge technology this telescope is carrying?
4. Now that Roman is nearly ready to leave the clean room, what happens next?
5. How can our viewers keep up to date on this mission and watch the launch? [nasa.gov/roman]

Other questions:
1. You mentioned Roman will investigate something called dark energy. What is this mysterious force, and how will ROMAN help us understand something that’s invisible?
2. At its heart Roman is a survey telescope that will return a lot of data. How is the team preparing to handle so much data?
3. How will Roman work with other observatories like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope?
4. Roman is heading to an orbit that’ll be a million miles away. How long does it take to get to that orbit, and how soon after launch can we expect to see the first images?
5. Why was this telescope named the Roman Space Telescope? What can you tell us about its namesake?
6. What else will Roman help us study, in addition to dark energy and planets outside our solar system?

See the following sources:

• https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/
• https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/frequently-asked-questions/