Overview
- The observatory was fueled, encapsulated in a Falcon Heavy fairing and moved to SpaceX’s LC‑39A at Kennedy Space Center, with liftoff targeted for Sunday, Aug. 30 at about 7:26 a.m. EDT.
- After separation the spacecraft will fly roughly one month to the Sun–Earth L2 point and then spend about 100 days commissioning its systems before normal science operations begin.
- Roman carries a 300‑megapixel Wide Field Instrument that images with Hubble-like sharpness over a field about 100 times larger plus a coronagraph demonstrator using deformable mirrors for high‑contrast exoplanet imaging.
- NASA expects Roman to return roughly 1–1.4 terabytes of science data per day to ground stations in New Mexico, Australia and Japan and to make data publicly available with first community-usable releases in late 2026 to early 2027.
- Built by Ball Aerospace at an estimated $4.3 billion lifecycle cost, the platform was converted from a reported surplus NRO satellite bus and finished final ground work ahead of schedule and under budget, creating a massive public archive for students and researchers worldwide.