Nancy Grace Roman Telescope: NASA’s cosmic frontier explorer

NASA has completed the assembly of its next major space observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, marking a key milestone ahead of its planned launch later this decade.

The two main sections of the infrared telescope were joined on November 25 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. The agency says the mission remains on track for launch no earlier than autumn 2026, with a target date of May 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Once in space, the Roman telescope will orbit the Sun–Earth L2 point, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, joining missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

Roman is designed to conduct wide-ranging surveys of the universe. It carries two instruments: a Wide-Field Instrument (WFI), which will capture images covering an area of sky about 100 times larger than those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and a Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), built to block out starlight to allow direct observation of nearby exoplanets and dust discs.

NASA says the telescope’s primary goals include studying dark energy, discovering and cataloguing exoplanets, investigating black holes, and directly imaging planets beyond the Solar System.

“Completing the Roman observatory brings us to a defining moment,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator. He added that the project now moves into its final phase of testing ahead of launch.

The mission has a planned five-year primary lifetime. Unlike some infrared telescopes, Roman does not rely on cryogenic coolant, meaning its operational life will be limited mainly by fuel used for manoeuvring and orientation.

Scientists expect Roman to deliver an unprecedented volume of data, imaging billions of galaxies and potentially identifying more than 100,000 distant worlds. During its primary mission, it could detect tens of thousands of supernovae and thousands of planets through gravitational microlensing.

NASA officials say the telescope will play a crucial role in efforts to understand dark energy, the unknown force believed to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.

“With Roman now standing as a complete observatory, we are a major step closer to understanding the universe as never before,” said Nicky Fox, head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, often referred to as NASA’s first chief astronomer, who played a central role in promoting space-based astronomy.

By Aghakazim Guliyev