tech
The $4.3 billion space telescope Trump tried to cancel is now complete
“We’re going to be making 3D movies of what is going on in the Milky Way galaxy.”
TL;DR
- The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is fully assembled at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
- The observatory is on schedule for a launch as early as fall 2026.
- Roman has a primary mirror nearly three times smaller than Webb's but offers a much wider field of view.
- Its Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel camera, will enable a cosmic census of billions of stars and galaxies.
- The Roman Coronagraph will block starlight to image exoplanets, aiming for significantly higher performance than Webb and Hubble.
- The mission's cost is $4.3 billion, with a slight overrun attributed to pandemic-related complications.
- Roman utilized a surplus primary mirror from the National Reconnaissance Office, reducing risk and cost.
- The telescope will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.