NASA’s Roman Space Telescope during launch processing at the Kennedy Space Center in July. Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz)
WASHINGTON — NASA’s next flagship space telescope is set to launch in late August, nine months ahead of schedule.
At a July 29 briefing, NASA officials said they are working toward a launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 30. Liftoff of the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the spacecraft is scheduled for 7:26 a.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center.
“The project is right where we need to be as we approach launch,” said Jackie Townsend, project manager for Roman, at the briefing.
Last week, workers completed loading the spacecraft with propellant that will be used to maneuver the spacecraft to the Earth-Sun L-2 Lagrange point and for stationkeeping there. The NASA spacecraft team will soon start joint operations with the SpaceX launch vehicle team, with encapsulation of Roman into the Falcon Heavy payload fairing expected in about three weeks.
