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'A glorious dawn launch': NASA's newest space telescope has left the Earth
Confirmed
"What a glorious dawn launch," NASA's Jackie Townsend, Roman telescope project manager, said at a press briefing soon after liftoff. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope blog is NASA's hub for the mission's launch updates, where all are invited for behind-the-scenes looks on Roman's road to launch and beyond.
NASA NASA is concluding live launch coverage after the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and separated from the second stage. A new NASA space telescope launched Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will help scientists probe the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and other mysteries of the universe.
About 15 years ago NASA was making plans to build a space telescope that could, among other things, search for exploding stars known as Type 1A supernovas. It took some substantial modifications, but now that old satellite is set to become NASA's next major space observatory.
"It takes us a good three-plus months to get out there, and we're spending that time checking everything out and doing a whole bunch of calibrations and making sure everything is working the way we know it can," said NASA's Jeremy Perkins, an integration and test scientist on the mission.
When Roman begins science operations, the Near Space Network will transmit Roman’s high rate science data, while the Deep Space Network will continue providing critical tracking data, including the precise range and angle measurements that show ground teams where Roman is in space.
Because one of our main goals at NASA is answering the question: Are we alone in the universe," Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directive, said at the Sunday morning briefing. Additional support for downlinking Roman data will come from ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), through their New Norcia and Misasa ground stations, respectively.
Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the observatory is expected to reveal new information about the expansion of the universe and discover multitudes of planets orbiting distant stars. Mission controllers will continue monitoring the observatory as it begins its journey toward an orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, about 1 million miles from Earth.
As NASA was developing plans for this new telescope, a call came in from the government office in charge of surveillance satellites. This flagship mission’s vast, deep surveys will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and almost anything from our own solar system to galaxies at the edge of the observable universe.
What's confirmed
- Now, astronomers are about to get a brand new tool to explore it.
- NASA NASA is concluding live launch coverage after the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and separated from the second stage.
- This flagship mission’s vast, deep surveys will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and almost anything from our own solar system to galaxies at the edge of the observable universe.
What's still developing
- A new NASA space telescope launched Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will help scientists probe the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and other mysteries of the universe.
- "What a glorious dawn launch," NASA's Jackie Townsend, Roman telescope project manager, said at a press briefing soon after liftoff.
- "It takes us a good three-plus months to get out there, and we're spending that time checking everything out and doing a whole bunch of calibrations and making sure everything is working the way we know it can," said…
- Because one of our main goals at NASA is answering the question: Are we alone in the universe," Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directive, said at the Sunday morning briefing.
- The universe is a strange place — filled with exploding stars, ancient galaxies, and unseen worlds.
- Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the observatory is expected to reveal new information about the expansion of the universe and discover multitudes of planets orbiting distant stars.
- Roman, as it is known to its friends, has an unusual history.
- About 15 years ago NASA was making plans to build a space telescope that could, among other things, search for exploding stars known as Type 1A supernovas.