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NASA Launches Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Falcon Heavy Rocket
Confirmed
In Short: NASA's $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida, marking the start of a three-month journey to map the cosmos and study dark matter and exoplanets.
NASA successfully launched its $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on August 30, 2026. The mission, which President Trump supported despite earlier budget cuts, aims to explore the universe's mysteries, including dark matter and exoplanets.
During the launch, President Trump called NASA chief Jared Isaacman, prompting Isaacman to hold his phone up to a microphone for the president to address the room. The Falcon Heavy rocket performed as expected, separating from the observatory 31 minutes into the flight and returning its boosters to the launch site for refurbishment.
The Roman Space Telescope, now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, will use a large-field 300-megapixel camera to study the universe's darkest secrets. It will also test the Coronagraph Instrument, designed to study planets around other stars.
The spacecraft will support a broad range of research, extending far beyond its main science goals, and will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets. Ground control teams at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center began receiving telemetry data from the observatory seven minutes after launch, confirming successful deployment of its solar panels and lower instrument sun shade.
Background
Florida is a state in the Southeastern and South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Straits of Florida to the south, and The Bahamas to the southeast.
What's confirmed
- Updated on: August 30, 2026 / 9:06 PM EDT / CBS News NASA 's $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Sunday, kicking off a three-month voyage to a point in space a million…
- 30, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- “Roman is exactly the kind of success story we want to see across NASA,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
- “Roman will be a discovery machine that will bring us closer than ever before to answering humanity’s most profound questions about our cosmic history,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission…
- “We’ve never been able to view the universe with eyes like Roman’s before,” said Julie McEnery, Roman’s senior project scientist at NASA Goddard.
What's still developing
- President Trump, whose administration attempted to reduce funding for Roman in earlier rounds of proposed budget cuts, called NASA chief Jared Isaacman during a post-launch news conference at the Florida spaceport,…
- A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope on board is seen transiting the sun during launch from Launch Complex 39A, Sunday, Aug.
- The spacecraft will study the mysteries of the cosmos while also testing the Coronagraph Instrument, designed and built by JPL to demonstrate advanced hardware for studying planets around other stars.
- Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets.
- Roman pairs a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to explore vast swaths of the sky and probe deeply into cosmic history.
- This flagship mission will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and worlds outside of our solar system, known as exoplanets.
- Its surveys will support a broad range of research extending far beyond the mission’s main science goals.
- The ground control team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began receiving telemetry data from Roman seven minutes after launch.