Nancy Roman Space Telescope (WFIRST)

[jbenton]

NGRST is on track for launch in May 2027. There may be more than 6 months of schedule margin:

https://www.space.com/space-nasa-completes-assembly-of-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-exploration/missions

With physical construction complete, Roman now shifts into a lengthy campaign of environmental and performance testing under simulated space conditions designed to verify that the spacecraft can survive the stresses of launch and operate as intended once in space. After that, the telescope will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this summer for final processing and integration with its launch vehicle. While the mission is slated to launch by May 2027, it could be ready as early as fall 2026, NASA officials said.

EDIT: And now we have an excellent article on NSF for this! I learned some new information from it: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/12/roman-construction-complete/

[Blackstar]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/the-4-3-billion-space-telescope-trump-tried-to-cancel-is-now-complete/


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.”
Stephen Clark – Dec 16, 2025 4:25 PM |

A few weeks ago, technicians inside a cavernous clean room in Maryland made the final connection to complete assembly of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Parts of this new observatory, named for NASA’s first chief astronomer, recently completed a spate of tests to ensure it can survive the shaking and intense sound of a rocket launch. Engineers placed the core of the telescope inside a thermal vacuum chamber, where it withstood the airless conditions and extreme temperature swings it will see in space.

Then, on November 25, teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, joined the inner and outer portions of the Roman Space Telescope. With this milestone, NASA declared the observatory complete and on track for launch as soon as fall 2026.

“The team is ecstatic,” said Jackie Townsend, the observatory’s deputy project manager at Goddard, in a recent interview with Ars. “It has been a long road, but filled with lots of successes and an ordinary amount of challenges, I would say. It’s just so rewarding to get to this spot.”

An ordinary amount of challenges is not something you usually hear a NASA official say about a one-of-a-kind space mission. NASA does hard things, and they usually take more time than originally predicted. Astronomers endured more than 10 years of delays, fixes, and setbacks before the James Webb Space Telescope finally launched in 2021.

[Star One]

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope: Widening Our Gaze:

[Galactic Penguin SST]

From Ars Technica:

NASA announced in December that assembly of Roman was completed, kicking off a series of environmental tests before its scheduled launch no earlier than September on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

[StraumliBlight]

Announcing the Opening of the Roman Research Nexus [Jan 12]

We are pleased to announce that the Roman Research Nexus is now available for use!

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will deliver an estimated 20 PB of data in its primary 5-year mission. In just one month, Roman will generate roughly twice the data volume produced by Hubble over 30 years. The Roman Research Nexus will provide the science community with a cloud-based science platform to efficiently access, explore, and analyze Roman's large volume of data.

The Nexus cloud-based scientific computing environment includes pre-installed software, Jupyter notebook tutorials, access to simulated datasets, team workspaces, and real-time collaboration tools.  Once Roman science operations start, all Roman data will be accessible through the Nexus.

Check out the Nexus now to start exploring existing simulated Roman datasets, quickly simulate your own Roman data using pre-installed simulation tools and pedagogical notebooks, and get familiar with Roman's data formats. All you need is a myST account to login and get started.

This four-part video series explores the differences and synergies of Roman and Webb.

[catdlr]

Far and Wide Part 3: Exoplanets

Jan 27, 2026
The James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes are NASA’s latest flagship astrophysics observatories. One is in space already and the other will join it there soon. These two telescopes look very different, have different objectives, and together will advance our understanding of the universe. This four-part video series explores the differences and synergies of Roman and Webb.

The Roman and Webb observatories will both make great contributions to our knowledge of worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.

Roman’s survey capability and frequent observations will unveil tens of thousands of exoplanets between Earth and the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument contains systems never before used in space and aims to directly image closer exoplanets, revealing types of worlds that astronomers have never photographed before.

Webb also has a coronagraph, and with its incredible sensitivity, Webb is able to measure the light from young, hot exoplanets to determine information about their surfaces and atmospheres.

Learn more at https://science.nasa.gov/roman-and-webb