# The Roman Space Telescope, explained

Status: Roman launched August 30, 2026 and is in commissioning on its way to Sun–Earth L2. NASA expects the first images in early 2027; none have been released yet.

- **Launch:** Aug 30, 2026, 7:26 a.m. EDT — SpaceX Falcon Heavy, Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center
- **Destination:** Sun–Earth L2 — About 1 million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, alongside Webb
- **Primary mirror:** 2.4 m — The same size as Hubble’s
- **Camera:** 300 megapixels — Wide Field Instrument: 18 detectors of 4096 × 4096 pixels
- **Field of view:** 0.28 deg² — About 1.5× the area of the full Moon; at least 100× Hubble’s
- **Sharpness:** 0.11″ / pixel — Hubble-class resolution across the whole field
- **Wavelengths:** 0.5–2.3 µm — Red visible light into the near-infrared
- **Filters:** 8 + grism + prism — F062, F087, F106, F129, F146, F158, F184, F213
- **Mission:** 5 years — Designed for a 5-year extension; refuelable by design
- **Names on board:** 1.3 million+ — Public names carried on a memory card to L2

## Timeline
- May 20, 2020 — WFIRST renamed for Nancy Grace Roman: NASA names its next flagship survey telescope after its first Chief of Astronomy.
- Jan 2026 — Observatory complete: Roman is fully assembled at NASA Goddard and begins final environmental testing.
- August 21, 2026 — Encapsulated: Roman is sealed inside the Falcon Heavy payload fairing at Kennedy Space Center.
- August 30, 2026 — Launch: Liftoff at 7:26 a.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Solar panels and sunshade deploy about 83 minutes later.
- September 4, 2026 — Antenna and aperture cover deployed: NASA confirms the high-gain antenna and visor-like aperture cover are deployed; commissioning is under way.
- Early Dec 2026 — Arrival at L2: After a roughly three-month cruise Roman settles into a halo orbit around Sun–Earth L2.
- Early 2027 — First images: NASA expects to share Roman’s first images in early 2027, after commissioning and calibration.
- After commissioning — Science operations begin: Core community surveys start, with every observation made public as soon as it is processed.