Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
2026
The next great survey telescope, named for Nancy Grace Roman - the 'Mother of Hubble'. A 2.4 m infrared telescope with a field of view ~100× wider than Hubble's, built to map dark energy and find exoplanets.
Specs
2.4 m mirror (donated by the NRO); 9,174 kg; 300.8-megapixel Wide-Field Instrument + a coronagraph for direct exoplanet imaging; 0.48-2.30 µm (blue to near-infrared); Sun-Earth L2 halo orbit; ~5-year mission. Launched 30 Aug 2026 on a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy LC-39A - both side boosters recovered; now en route to L2, first science data in ~100 days.
Why it matters
The wide field is the whole point: the WFI sees an area ~100× larger than Hubble's imaging cameras at Hubble-level sharpness, so it surveys vast swaths of sky fast. That's how it will measure dark energy, hunt exoplanets (by microlensing and direct imaging), and test general relativity. Its home, the Sun-Earth L2 halo orbit, is a real, calculable gravitational balance point ~1.5 million km away.