Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Final Assembly Begins at Goddard Labs

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Final Assembly Begins at Goddard Labs

The final assembly of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has begun at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The telescope, formerly known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), is a next-generation observatory that will answer pressing cosmic questions about dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets.

The telescope's primary mirror is already in place, and the rest of the spacecraft is being integrated around it. The telescope's two scientific instruments are also being installed. The first instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, will image a wide area of the sky in infrared light. The second instrument, the Coronagraph Instrument, will use a mask to block out the light from stars, allowing astronomers to study faint exoplanets that orbit them.

The Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in May 2027. Once in orbit, it will spend five years surveying the universe, making new discoveries about the cosmos.