NASA has awarded a Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, California, to provide launch service for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission, the top-priority large space mission. recommended by the 2010 Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The total cost for the launch of the telescope is approximately 255 million dollars. It is scheduled to launch in October 2026, as specified in the contract, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The science program of the telescope will include dedicated research to address outstanding questions in cosmology, including the effects of dark energy and matter, as well as the exploration of exoplanets. Nancy Grace Roman also includes a substantial General Investigator Program to allow further study of astrophysical phenomena to advance other scientific goals.
The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST)but was later renamed in honor of Nancy Grace Roman for her extraordinary work at NASA, which paved the way for large space telescopes.
NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for managing SpaceX’s launch service launch vehicle program. The Roman Space Telescope project is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.