At 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30, 2026, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy carrying NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. NASA says controllers began receiving telemetry about seven minutes after launch and the observatory separated from the rocket roughly 31 minutes into flight. Roman then began its journey toward the vicinity of the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, about one million miles from Earth. The agency also confirmed deployment of the solar arrays and lower instrument sunshade. With wide-field infrared imaging, Roman is designed to investigate dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and a broad range of survey-science questions. The launch event and the cited NASA release are both dated August 30. This report does not equate a successful launch with completion of commissioning; later deployments, course corrections, and the start of science operations require separate NASA confirmation.
Commercial space · International space
NASA Launches the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30 aboard a Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, beginning its journey toward the Sun-Earth L2 region.
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