NASA's $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, bound for a location four times farther than the Moon. The observatory carries a 300-megapixel camera built with a repurposed spy satellite mirror and offers a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble's. It is only the second NASA-led astrophysics flagship mission launched this century, after Webb in 2021, and notably arrived at the pad ahead of its own deadline.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-08-31
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, beginning its mission to investigate dark matter and dark energy. Shortly after launch, the telescope successfully deployed its solar panels and sun shade, with remaining instruments set to activate in coming weeks. First images are expected in early 2027, with the observatory eventually beaming back 1.4 terabytes of data daily.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-30
During NASA's post-launch news conference for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Administrator Jared Isaacman stepped away mid-briefing to take a call, then returned to let President Trump address reporters and officials over speakerphone. Trump praised the launch's television coverage, complimented Isaacman's leadership, and noted his administration's funding for the agency.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-08-30
NASA successfully launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will spend three months traveling roughly one million miles to reach its observation post at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point. Once there, it will scan the cosmos with a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble's and a speed 1,000 times faster, using a 300-megapixel infrared camera and a coronagraph that blocks starlight to reveal orbiting planets.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-30
SpaceX is set to launch NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket, with a launch window opening at 7:26 a.m. EDT. The telescope will settle nearly 1 million miles from Earth, using a 300-megapixel infrared camera and a coronagraph to map dark matter and search for Earth-like exoplanets, with all data made publicly available.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-30
NASA sent the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on Sunday, equipping it with a 2.4-meter mirror matching Hubble's but pairing it with a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument. That camera can capture images at least 100 times larger than Hubble's per shot and scan the sky roughly 1,000 times faster, letting it map billions of stars and galaxies and search for around 100,000 exoplanets.
techspot.com
· 2026-08-30
NASA's $4.3-billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched successfully atop a SpaceX rocket from Kennedy Space Center, carrying the largest infrared digital camera ever built along with a large mirror originally built for a spy satellite. The observatory, named after NASA's first chief astronomer, is now headed to its operational orbit to study dark energy, map millions of Milky Way stars, and search for exoplanets.
nature.com
· 2026-08-30
NASA has named its next major space observatory after Nancy Grace Roman, the agency's first chief astronomer and a key figure behind Hubble. The telescope will offer a field of view at least 100 times wider than Hubble's, allowing it to capture light from potentially a billion galaxies over its operational life.
science.nasa.gov
· 2026-08-29
Kurt Polzin, chief engineer of NASA's space nuclear propulsion project, and Robert Schleicher of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems roughed out a nuclear rocket engine design on a napkin during a conference conversation last year. The concept remains at an early paper-planning stage, following a long tradition of major technical breakthroughs first appearing as napkin sketches, from Compaq's portable PC to Vishay's power resistor.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-08-29
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, ahead of its upcoming launch, carries a hand-sized experimental coronagraph designed to directly capture starlight reflected off a planet's surface for the first time from space. The instrument uses deformable mirrors and adaptive optics to block a star's glare while revealing much fainter orbiting planets, a technique already used on ground telescopes but never before flown at this level of sophistication in orbit.
wired.com
· 2026-08-29
President Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, who flew around the moon in April. At the same ceremony, he signed an executive order establishing a Presidential Commission, chaired by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, to draft plans within 120 days for a new United States Space Academy meant to train personnel for NASA, the Space Force, and private space companies.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-29
NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 30, a $4.3 billion observatory built from a spare satellite donated by the National Reconnaissance Office roughly 15 years ago. The telescope will search for Type 1A supernovas and study dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe's expansion, while also hunting for exoplanets.
npr.org
· 2026-08-28
GoKawiil