Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
A 100x wider Hubble for dark-energy and exoplanet surveys
Roman is NASA's first flagship space telescope since JWST. Its primary mirror is the same 2.4 m diameter as Hubble's — donated by the National Reconnaissance Office — but its detector array is one hundred times wider, giving it Hubble-class sharpness across a patch of sky big enough to map structure on cosmological scales.
Two instruments share the focal plane: the Wide Field Instrument, an infrared survey camera designed to image hundreds of millions of galaxies and detect tens of thousands of microlensing exoplanets, and the Coronagraph Instrument, a technology demonstration aimed at imaging gas giants and dusty disks around nearby stars.
Roman is named for Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first Chief Astronomer and the scientist often called the 'Mother of Hubble' for the lobbying and architecture work that made a space telescope program possible at all. It launched on 30 August 2026 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center and spends its first three months being commissioned on the way out to the Sun–Earth L2 point, where science operations begin in early 2027.
Mission timeline
- 2010Recommended by Decadal Survey
Astro2010 ranks WFIRST (the mission's earlier name) as its top space-based priority for the decade.
- 2011 · JanNRO mirror donated
The National Reconnaissance Office hands NASA two unused 2.4 m space-grade telescope assemblies — the optical heart of what becomes Roman.
- 2016 · FebFormal start
WFIRST enters Phase A. Wide Field Instrument and Coronagraph Instrument designs are baselined.
- 2020 · MayRenamed
Renamed in honour of Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), NASA's first Chief Astronomer.
- 2022 · JulLaunch vehicle selected
NASA picks SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy LC-39A to send Roman to L2.
- 2025 · NovConstruction complete
Spacecraft and instrument segments are integrated at Goddard — Roman becomes a complete observatory for the first time.
- 2026 · Aug 30Launch
Lifts off from Kennedy LC-39A on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, separating from the upper stage 31 minutes later and unfolding its solar panels and lower sunshade within the first hour and a half.
- 2026 · Aug 31First course correction
A three-minute burn trims the path to L2 with more than 99% accuracy, using about 18 kg of the 200 kg budgeted — savings that leave fuel for at least 22 years of science.
- 2026 · Sep 1Antenna and visor deployed
The high-gain antenna and the visor-like aperture cover that shades the telescope swing into place, and the Coronagraph Instrument powers on for the first time.
- 2026 · SepFirst starlight
The Wide Field Instrument's 18 infrared detectors catch their first starlight in an early, unfocused test image; on Sep 22 the coronagraph sees its first star, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- 2026 · DecL2 orbit insertion
Planned arrival about 100 days after launch, settling into a halo orbit around the Sun–Earth L2 point, 1.5 million km from Earth.
- 2027Science begins
NASA expects Roman's first science images by early 2027, followed by the High Latitude Wide-Area Survey, the microlensing campaign toward the galactic bulge and the Coronagraph technology demonstration.
Active instruments
- Wide Field Instrument
Near-infrared survey camera, 0.28 deg² per pointing — Hubble sharpness across 100× the area
- Coronagraph Instrument
Technology demonstration coronagraph for directly imaging gas giants and dust around nearby stars
