NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has achieved a major prelaunch milestone as preparations continue for its mission, which is scheduled to launch 9 months ahead of the original timeline. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers successfully moved the telescope from a horizontal to a vertical position, marking another important step toward launch.
The observatory was transported to NASA Kennedy inside a specialized climate-controlled shipping container after arriving from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was then moved to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where engineers carried out detailed inspections following its journey.
Before the telescope was unpacked and lifted into a vertical position inside the facility’s high bay, engineers completed additional cleaning of the airlock to remove any trace contaminants and maintain a controlled environment.
Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer and the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,” the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed to deliver a field of view at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. This capability will allow scientists to conduct deep, wide-ranging studies of the universe.
NASA and SpaceX are currently targeting a launch no earlier than Sunday, 30 August, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
More information about the Roman mission is available at www.nasa.gov/roman.
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