NASA Finishes Building Core of Roman Space Telescope

NASA doesn't plan to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope until 2027, but a core component of the telescope is now complete. The team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center reports that the spacecraft bus is complete after years of construction and testing. This milestone will allow engineers to begin assembling the telescope in its final configuration with science instruments and the telescope itself attached to the bus.

The hexagonal spacecraft bus is about 13 feet (4 meters) wide by 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall. It tips the scales at 8,400 pounds (3,800 kilograms), and while that sounds like a lot, it'll weigh a lot more later. The bus is mostly hollow right now, with a super-thin metallic honeycomb for added structural strength. Technicians have tested all the components separately, and the Goddard team has now put the complete spacecraft bus through its ...