NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on 30 August aboard a SpaceX rocket, sending it roughly 1.5 million kilometres from Earth to begin observing the Universe. The telescope's 2.4-metre mirror, originally built for surveillance purposes and handed to NASA in 2012, was re-engineered for astronomy and paired with a 300-megapixel infrared camera capable of imaging patches of sky about 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope can capture in one shot.
nature.com
· 2026-09-02
NASA is inviting people to sign up online for a personal 'pixel' from the first images captured by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Each participant provides an email address, which is limited to one pixel per address, and later receives a printable certificate showing their assigned pixel number.
science.nasa.gov
· 2026-09-01
A photo of juvenile lobsters being reared at the UK National Lobster Hatchery before release into the wild was named a finalist for Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026. The image is part of a broader roundup of standout science photography from the past month, curated by Nature's photo team.
nature.com
· 2026-09-01
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
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
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