Nasa launches Roman space telescope

Nasa's next-generation Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday morning local time, August 30, 2026. The telescope, carried by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, separated about 30 minutes after launch and is heading to a vantage point about one million miles from Earth. Its mission is to create vast panoramic views of the universe, with a field of vision 100 times larger than Hubble or James Webb. Over a five-year primary mission (with a goal of 10 years), Roman will investigate dark energy and dark matter, discover and characterize exoplanets, map billions of galaxies, study black holes, and explore solar system objects. Nasa officials, including administrator Nicky Fox, hailed the launch as a 'giant leap forward' in answering whether we are alone in the universe. President Donald Trump called in to congratulate the team. The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, Nasa's first chief astronomer.