Roman Space Telescope Mission Launch Contract Awarded

NASA has awarded a Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), to provide launch service for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission. The Roman Space Telescope is the top-priority large space mission recommended by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

NLS II is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The total cost for NASA to launch the Roman telescope is approximately $255 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs. The telescope’s mission currently is targeted to launch in October 2026, as specified in the contract, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The telescope’s science program will include dedicated investigations to tackle outstanding questions in cosmology, including the effects of dark energy and dark matter, and exoplanet exploration. Roman also includes a substantial general investigator program to enable further studies of astrophysical phenomena to advance other science goals.

The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), but it was later renamed in honor of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman for her extraordinary work at NASA, which paved the way for large space telescopes.

Roman’s gigantic field of view will enable the mission to create infrared images that are around 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope can provide while revealing the same rich level of detail. The spacecraft is expected to collect far more data than any other NASA astrophysics mission before it.

In February 2020 the Roman Space Telescope mission passed a major programmatic and technical milestone, giving the mission the official green light to begin hardware development and testing. In September 2021, Roman also passed its critical design review, signaling that all design and developmental engineering work is now complete. The Roman team is currently building and testing the observatory to ensure the design will hold up under the extreme conditions during launch and while in space.

The combination of Roman’s fine resolution and enormous images has never been possible on a space-based telescope before and will make the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope an indispensable tool in the future.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch vehicle program management of the SpaceX launch service. The Roman Space Telescope mission is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

(Image provided with NASA news release)