CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, sending one of the agency’s most powerful space observatories into orbit to study dark matter, dark energy and planets beyond the solar system.
The rocket lifted off at 6:26 a.m. CDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman will spend at least five years surveying the universe, with NASA holding the option to extend the mission for another five years.
NASA expects Roman to begin producing its first official images in early 2027.
The telescope will orbit the Sun about 1 million miles from Earth, roughly the same distance as the James Webb Space Telescope. Its wide field of view will allow scientists to survey much larger portions of the sky than previous observatories.
Roman’s Wide Field Instrument has a 300-megapixel detector with the same image resolution as Hubble but a field of view about 100 times larger. NASA said the telescope will also collect data at a rate up to 1,000 times faster than Hubble.
“One month of observations to survey our Milky Way galaxy would take about a century with Hubble,” said Julie McHenry, a scientist working on the mission.
Roman is expected to transmit about 1.4 terabytes of data each day to ground stations in New Mexico, Australia and Japan.
The telescope also carries a coronagraph designed to block the glare from stars, allowing scientists to observe objects near them and study planets outside the solar system.
Scientists will use Roman’s observations to investigate dark matter, the unseen material whose gravitational effects influence the movement of galaxies and other objects.
NASA also expects the telescope to help researchers study dark energy, the unknown force associated with the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Roman will create a large three-dimensional map showing the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Scientists will use the map to examine how dark matter and dark energy have shaped the universe.
The telescope will also search for and study billions of celestial objects, including exoplanets, supernovae, black holes, stars and distant galaxies.
McHenry said the mission could challenge scientists’ current understanding of how the universe works.
“We’re very likely to demonstrate that our standard model is wrong,” she said, referring to the possibility that Roman’s observations could reveal inconsistencies in current cosmological models.
Roman arrived at the SpaceX hangar at Kennedy Space Center earlier this week and was attached to the Falcon Heavy ahead of the launch.
After launch, the rocket’s stages separated from the spacecraft, allowing Roman to continue toward its planned orbit. NASA teams will deploy its solar panels and sunshade and activate its scientific instruments in the coming days and weeks.
Scientists will spend the following months testing and calibrating the telescope before it begins its primary scientific observations.
NASA named the telescope after Nancy Grace Roman, the agency’s first chief astronomer and first female executive. Roman worked at NASA from 1959 until her retirement in 1979 and helped advocate for the development of what became the Hubble Space Telescope.
Roman died in 2018. NASA has described her as the “mother of Hubble” because of her role in securing support for the space telescope.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the Roman mission was delivered ahead of schedule and on budget after more than a decade of development.
The telescope weighs about 18,000 pounds and measures 42 feet long when fully deployed. NASA said fuel availability will likely determine when the mission ends, although the spacecraft was designed for potential refueling after returning to Earth.
