After several years of preparation, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to launch.
Here’s a look at the steps, tests, and deployments that NASA’s mission planners hope happen in the hours, days, and weeks after launch.
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Carefully Orchestrated Series of Deployments
According to the mission site, once Roman has left Earth’s atmosphere, it will spend the next 90 days going through “a carefully orchestrated series of deployments, calibrations, and tests.”
Within the first hours of launch, NASA says the rocket boosters and main stage of the 18,000-pound (8,000-kilogram) dry-mass spacecraft, which is “about the mass of a Tyrannosaurus rex,” will separate. Soon thereafter, the rocket’s reusable side boosters will return to the area around the launch site and attempt to land.
In space, the rocket’s second stage will separate from the nose cone, which is jettisoned into space. This is followed by Roman separating from the launch vehicle.
To generate power and protect the spacecraft’s sensitive payload, Roman’s solar panels and sunshade will be deployed. According to NASA’s mission fact sheet, each of the space telescope’s six solar panels measures about 7 by 10 feet (2 by 3 meters) and is covered in a total of 3,902 solar cells.
When fully deployed, the panels will combine to provide up to 4 kilowatts of power. For comparison, the mission site says that it is “about the same rate that a modest rooftop solar panel system produces during the daytime.”
The Next 30 Days
Roman will spend the next 30 days speeding toward its final destination, a relatively stable location in the solar system called Lagrange 2, located roughly 930,000 to 1 million miles (1.5 to 1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.
During that journey, the craft’s antenna and deployable aperture will deploy. NASA says the carbon composite radio dish is 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) in diameter. For comparison, the space organization compared its height to an average refrigerator but noted it “weighs only 24 pounds (10.9 kilograms).”
“Its large size will help Roman send radio signals across a million miles of intervening space to Earth,” NASA explained.
One band of the dual-band antenna will receive commands from mission control and return information about the spacecraft’s location and overall health. The second band will communicate what NASA termed “a deluge of data at up to 500 megabits per second.”
About halfway through its voyage, Roman will make a course correction. During that same phase, the spacecraft’s Coronograph instrument will power up. The telescope’s other primary sensor, the Wide Field Instrument, will activate a few weeks later.
“With all components fully deployed, NASA said Roman is over 42 feet (12.7 meters long) and over 14 feet (4.4 meters) wide. The space agency said these dimensions make Roman “about the size of a tour bus.”
Finally, NASA said that throughout the rest of its 90-day commissioning period, both the antenna and Coronagraph “will run through a series of calibrations and tests.”
First Images Expected in 2027
Although the agency did not specify an exact date for the space telescope’s first light, the Roman team said it “anticipates releasing new images by early 2027.” For detailed updates, you can also follow NASA’s official Roman blog.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.