NASA launches powerful Roman Space Telescope to explore the dark universe
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has launched on a three-month journey to its final orbit, where it will investigate some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, including dark matter, dark energy and planets beyond our solar system, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The telescope lifted off at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Roman separated from the rocket’s second stage at 7:57 a.m. EDT and is now traveling on its own toward the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, about 1 million miles from Earth. The observatory is expected to reach its destination after about three months.
The telescope combines a wide field of view with infrared vision, allowing it to survey large areas of the sky much faster than previous space telescopes. NASA says Roman is designed to survey the universe about 1,000 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Its primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, is a 300-megapixel infrared camera equipped with 18 detectors. Roman will use it to map billions of galaxies, study black holes and search for planets outside our solar system.
The mission will also study dark matter and dark energy, which together make up most of the universe but remain poorly understood.
Our newest space telescope is on its way to revealing the universe's darkest secrets!
— NASA (@NASA) August 30, 2026
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Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument will demonstrate technology for directly imaging large planets around other stars. The technology could contribute to future missions searching for Earth-like planets and signs of life.
The observatory successfully deployed its solar panels and lower instrument sun shade about one hour and 23 minutes after launch. Additional components will be deployed in the coming days as controllers prepare the telescope for its journey to L2.
Once operational, Roman is expected to send back about 1.4 terabytes of data each day, the highest data rate so far for a NASA astrophysics mission. Scientists, artificial intelligence, machine learning and citizen scientists will help process the large volume of information.
NASA plans to spend about three months commissioning and calibrating the observatory before beginning its main scientific operations. The agency expects to release Roman’s first images by early 2027.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that NASA astronauts completed a spacewalk to prepare the ISS for solar array upgrade.
