WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.101
[Dramatic music throughout]

2
00:00:01.101 --> 00:00:02.202
[WFIRST]

3
00:00:02.202 --> 00:00:03.570
[2010 Decadal Infrared Survey Telescope]

4
00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:05.338
16 years ago.

5
00:00:05.338 --> 00:00:09.476
the science community
asked for an infrared survey telescope.

6
00:00:09.476 --> 00:00:10.343
[Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Exoplanets]

7
00:00:10.343 --> 00:00:11.945
And for the last ten years,

8
00:00:12.278 --> 00:00:13.580
the best in the world

9
00:00:13.580 --> 00:00:15.115
have been building it.

10
00:00:19.119 --> 00:00:22.122
The pieces have come from all over:

11
00:00:23.423 --> 00:00:26.426
small firms across the United States;

12
00:00:29.062 --> 00:00:32.065
aerospace industry leaders;

13
00:00:35.502 --> 00:00:38.471
research centers like JPL.

14
00:00:42.042 --> 00:00:43.043
They took shape

15
00:00:43.043 --> 00:00:46.913
and joined systems built at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center,

16
00:00:47.447 --> 00:00:50.150
one of the few facilities in the world

17
00:00:50.150 --> 00:00:52.185
capable of handling a project

18
00:00:52.185 --> 00:00:53.720
of this magnitude.

19
00:01:09.869 --> 00:01:12.872
Here, the team assembled those pieces.

20
00:01:16.509 --> 00:01:19.312
The Spacecraft Bus — holding everything

21
00:01:19.312 --> 00:01:22.415
the observatory needs to thrive in space.

22
00:01:27.720 --> 00:01:29.722
The High-Gain Antenna System —

23
00:01:29.722 --> 00:01:33.226
communicating with Earth over a million miles away.

24
00:01:35.428 --> 00:01:36.996
The Coronagraph —

25
00:01:36.996 --> 00:01:38.998
performing magic with physics

26
00:01:39.099 --> 00:01:41.134
to see distant worlds.

27
00:01:43.369 --> 00:01:45.105
The Wide Field Instrument —

28
00:01:45.105 --> 00:01:48.374
scanning the sky
with a massive field of view.

29
00:01:52.278 --> 00:01:55.081
And, the Primary Mirror Assembly —

30
00:01:55.081 --> 00:01:58.084
the singular, light-catching eye.

31
00:02:02.755 --> 00:02:04.958
They were joined with protective layers

32
00:02:04.958 --> 00:02:08.228
that shield them from the intense glare of the Sun

33
00:02:08.394 --> 00:02:12.232
and generate all the power
the observatory will ever need.

34
00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:17.437
Fully assembled,
the observatory was subjected

35
00:02:17.704 --> 00:02:19.606
to another battery of tests.

36
00:02:23.877 --> 00:02:26.446
And then prepared for careful transport

37
00:02:26.446 --> 00:02:27.981
to the Kennedy Space Center.

38
00:02:40.093 --> 00:02:42.929
The final work at Kennedy is done

39
00:02:42.929 --> 00:02:45.899
and the observatory is complete.

40
00:02:48.968 --> 00:02:51.604
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

41
00:02:51.604 --> 00:02:53.840
is ready for launch.

42
00:03:04.017 --> 00:03:09.022
[Roman Space Telescope]

43
00:03:09.022 --> 00:03:14.027
[NASA]