NASA's new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to launch. Here's why it's so cool.
NASA is preparing to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a new instrument designed to study dark energy and the evolution of the universe. It is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on August 30.
Why it matters
This telescope represents a significant advancement in astronomical research, potentially solving fundamental mysteries about the origins of the universe.
An illustration of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. (NASA) It's been more than 36 years since NASA sent its Hubble Space Telescope into low-Earth orbit, and nearly five years since the agency's James Webb Space Telescope started to circle the sun. Now a new, even more advanced hunk of astronomical hardware is set to follow its two pioneering predecessors into the cosmos: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
After more than a decade in development, the Roman Space Telescope will launch at 7:20 a.m. on Aug. 30 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida — nine months ahead of schedule. Its mission? To study how the universe began, what it's made of and how it has evolved over time — while (hopefully) helping scientists solve some of modern astronomy's biggest mysteries in the process.
NASA experts previewed that mission at a virtual news conference on Wednesday .
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