Installing the Roman Space Telescope's Nervous System

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft’s electrical cabling, or harness, which enables different parts of the observatory to communicate with one another.

The wire harness is so intricate that it was first built on a mock-up structure. The video shows it lifted from that first structure, using a custom-built basket called the harness transfer tool and placed into the primary structure that will fly with the observatory.

Now, engineers will weave the harness through the flight structure in Goddard’s big clean room. This ongoing process will continue until most of the spacecraft components are assembled. In the meantime, the Goddard team will soon begin installing electronics boxes that will eventually provide power via the harness to all the spacecraft’s science instruments.