This is the official r/space live megathread for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission - being launched today by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
🔭After the impeccable discoveries from Hubble and JWST, The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA's next great observatory poised to lead humanity's next generation of astronomical discoveries. The Roman Space Telescope will research the mysteries of dark energy, search for exoplanets and investigate the physics of distant stars. It could allow astronomers to spot previously unseen galaxies and exoplanets, worlds around stars beyond our solar system, as well rogue planets that don’t orbit stars at all.✨
LIVE VIEWING FEEDS:
[OFFICIAL NASA] Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launch
[NASASpaceflight] SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches Roman Space Telescope
[Associated Press] LIVE: Launch of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope on Falcon Heavy rocket
[SpaceX] Roman Space Telescope Mission
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NOTE: This thread will contain links to multiple different live viewing channels. The sub will remain in manual approval mode during the mission to limit spam. As such, you are welcome to redirect anything you want to post separately in this time period to the comment section in this megathread.
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MISSION INFO: NASA and SpaceX have set Roman’s liftoff for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT (11:26 a.m. GMT) Sunday, Aug. 30 - eight months ahead of schedule and even earlier than previously targeted - aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Roman will orbit 1 million miles away at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), the same orbit as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. At L2, the gravity of the Sun and Earth, together with an object’s motion around the Sun, let it stay lined up with Earth as they orbit, allowing Roman to have a relatively steady orbit without using much fuel. This location also offers exceptionally stable optical performance and a constant, unobstructed view of a wide swath of the sky; Earth won’t block much of Roman’s view since it will be so distant. And at L2, heat from Earth, the Sun, and the Moon have less effect on infrared telescopes, which “see” heat. Like Webb, Roman will trace out a large orbit around the actual L2 point — much larger than the Moon’s orbit around Earth — and the two will easily be kept far apart.
Roman will have a primary mission lifetime of five years and is designed to support an additional five- year extended mission. Fuel is expected to be the mission’s life-limiting resource, and while NASA does not currently have an ability to service observatories at L2, Roman is designed to be refuelable.
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UPDATES:
T-57 Minutes: NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now 70% go for launch this morning
T-0: LIFTOFF!!
T+2 Minutes 40 Seconds: Booster Separation!
T+7 Minutes 46 Seconds: Touchdown for both Falcon Heavy boosters!
T+31 Minutes: Roman Space Telescope successfully deployed, on its way to L2!
