NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope Is About to Start Its Cosmic Survey

After nearly a decade in development, NASA’s next big telescope is almost ready to travel into space. The agency has set Sunday as the launch date for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. This places the project approximately eight months ahead of its original schedule and, according to NASA leadership, significantly under budget.

NASA is getting some assistance from SpaceX for this launch. The telescope is being taken into space by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, where it’ll separate and head to its final location while the SpaceX rocket returns to Earth.

With the launch just a few days away, the telescope should be pretty close to ready to go. That includes detailed inspections to verify it sustained no damage during transit. Engineers also loaded 290 gallons of hydrazine to fuel the telescope and conducted several dress rehearsals in preparation for the launch.

The destination for the Nancy Grace...

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