NASA held a virtual news conference on Wednesday, July 29, to preview the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission, scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center on **Sunday, Aug. 30**.
The briefing featured key officials including Shawn Domagal-Goldman (director, Astrophysics Division), Jackie Townsend (project manager), Julie McEnery (senior project scientist), and Jeremy Perkins (integration and test scientist).
Named after NASA's first chief astronomer, the Roman Space Telescope offers a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's, enabling sweeping cosmic surveys. Key capabilities include unveiling celestial objects, studying dark energy and dark matter, testing advanced coronagraph technology for exoplanet imaging, and aiding the search for life on other worlds.
The telescope was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in late June, nine months ahead of schedule. It will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Managed at NASA Goddard with participation from JPL, Caltech/IPAC, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and partners including BAE Systems, L3Harris, and Teledyne. International contributions come from ESA, JAXA, CNES, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
