NASA's Roman Space Telescope Launches to Explore the Universe

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Roman Space Telescope launched on Sunday to search for planets around other stars, investigate dark energy, and conduct a comprehensive survey of the cosmos. The $4.3 billion telescope was launched aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket shortly after daybreak, heading towards an observation point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away, where it will join the Webb Space Telescope. The telescope, named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, is expected to take more than three months to reach its destination. Once operational, it aims to observe the universe with unprecedented speed and detail. NASA science mission director Nicky Fox stated, “It’s going to find thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of planets, billions of galaxies and tens of billions of stars.” Following the launch, the rocket’s side boosters successfully returned to Cape Canaveral, and the telescope separated from the rocket’s upper stage. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump shortly after the launch. Roman’s field of view is over 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been operational for 36 years. The Roman Space Telescope will collaborate with the Webb Space Telescope, the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft, and the National Science Foundation’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory to uncover the universe’s secrets. Roman is expected to provide insights into dark matter and dark energy, which constitute most of the universe. Its observations will be significantly faster than those of Hubble, with a month of observations taking Hubble a century to complete. Roman features a wide-field infrared camera and an experimental coronagraph to directly image planets orbiting stars. Although not designed to search for life, it will facilitate future studies on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The telescope is designed to be refueled, potentially extending its operational life. Roman is the first NASA space telescope named after a woman, honoring Nancy Grace Roman’s contributions to astronomy. The telescope’s primary mirror, nearly 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter, is made from surplus spy satellite materials donated to NASA over a decade ago.