New NASA space telescope Nancy Grace Roman could launch in early September

Scientists at the US space agency NASA are making faster progress than originally planned in the construction of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (NGRST). Therefore, the new space telescope could be launched into space as early as the beginning of September 2026. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is to be used for this purpose. The NGRST features a wide-field view with a massive imaging system designed to photograph planets outside our solar system and search for dark matter.

It was announced in December 2025 that the NASA Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is ready. At that time, it was still stated that the telescope would be ready for launch in autumn 2026 and would fly into space by May 2027 at the latest. However, a few days ago, NASA announced that the NGRST can launch as early as the beginning of September. This means the project is “eight months ahead of schedule and under budget,” according to NASA administrator Jared Isaacman at a press conference.

Named after the first NASA chief astronomer

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is an infrared telescope that was originally developed under the name Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). It was renamed in 2020 and has since borne the name of the US astronomer and first NASA director of astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman. She is referred to as the “Mother of Hubble” for her important role in the development of the Hubble space telescope. After its launch, the NGRST is intended to complement the already active James Webb Space Telescope.

The primary mirror of the NGRST has a diameter of 2.4 meters, the same size as that of the Hubble Telescope but significantly smaller than that of the James Webb Space Telescope, which is 6.5 meters. The mirror is intended to focus light and reflect it onto the instruments. Roman has two of them: the primary instrument is a camera that operates in the infrared range. This Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) has 18 sensors and a resolution of 300.8 megapixels. Scientists want such a WFI to be able to capture a larger portion of space at once.

The second instrument is also a camera: the Roman coronograph is designed to photograph exoplanets that shine much more faintly than their stars. To be able to glimpse these planets, the instrument has a series of filters and other systems that block out the light from the stars. The space telescope is intended to carry out many different scientific observations. In addition to exoplanets, astronomers want to use it to detect stars, galaxies, and black holes. They also want to gain insights into dark energy and dark matter.

At least 5 years of 1.4 TB of data per day

The space telescope's mission is designed for at least five years, during which time the NGRST is expected to build up a data archive of around 20,000 TB. According to Ars Technica, the telescope could send 1.4 TB of data to Earth every day. This data is intended to be used by scientists to identify and study 100,000 exoplanets. In addition, hundreds of millions of galaxies, billions of stars, and rare objects and phenomena could be captured.

Julie McEnery, an astrophysicist at NASA and project lead for the NGRST, explained: “I very much hope and in fact expect that the most exciting science from Roman is going to be the things that we didn’t expect that we couldn’t predict, but that will set the new, deep questions [for] future missions to address”.

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