NASA launching $4.3B Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope August 30
Technology
NASA is launching the $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026.
Named after NASA's first chief astronomer, this powerful telescope started as a NASA mission concept but has been reworked to help us explore how the universe is expanding and hunt for new exoplanets.
Roman telescope scans galaxy, searches exoplanets
Roman will scan our galaxy's stars in just a month, a job that would take Hubble 100 years, and search for hidden planets using gravitational microlensing, spotting worlds even Jupiter- and Neptune-sized ones that other telescopes miss.
It will also help scientists understand dark energy by studying distant supernovas, and Roman's catalogs will be available to everyone, not just academics.