Roman Space Telescope cleared for launch

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has passed a Flight Readiness Review and is cleared for final launch preparations. The telescope is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center. Roman will study cosmic expansion, the universe's history, and exoplanets.

EXPANDED:

The Flight Readiness Review convened NASA leadership, the Roman mission team, and SpaceX officials at Kennedy Space Center on Friday, where they assessed the spacecraft, rocket, launch site, and overall mission readiness. With certification granted, technicians will move the observatory—already sealed inside Falcon Heavy's protective fairing—to SpaceX's hangar at pad 39A, connect it to the rocket, and transport the assembled vehicle to the launch pad for final pre-liftoff checks.

Roman is designed to survey vast swaths of the sky, enabling studies of cosmic expansion, the universe's evolutionary history, and exoplanets orbiting distant stars. Falcon Heavy, one of SpaceX's most powerful