2.08.2026
NASA’s Roman Telescope to Carry 1.35 Million Names to Deep Space
On July 27, technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida installed a memory card containing 1,350,144 names as part of a commemorative plaque on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The names were submitted by people globally, including astronauts from Artemis II and Artemis III. The memory card will travel with the Roman observatory to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, or L2, about one million miles from Earth, where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravity balance out.
Roman is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency’s modern science program. Roman championed space-based observatories that could study the universe from above Earth’s hazy atmosphere while making their data broadly available to the scientific community.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting launch for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 22.08.2026
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Launch Dress Rehearsal Complete Ahead of NASA Roman Space Telescope Liftoff
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Illustration
The team preparing to launch NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope completed a mission dress rehearsal on Thursday from Florida’s space coast.
During the exercise, Roman teams ran through a full end-to-end simulation of launch-day operations leading up to liftoff. They practiced powering up the spacecraft, simulated fueling operations for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, conducted mock weather briefings, and practiced troubleshooting a variety of scenarios.
This rehearsal is a standard part of preparation and contributes to mission success, especially since NASA missions often involve unique requirements specific to a given spacecraft. During the simulation, the team was on console at NASA and SpaceX facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and at SpaceX facilities at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, where they tested and demonstrated proficiency on everything from communications to mission systems.
Completing the rehearsal brings the team one step closer to sending Roman on its mission to address essential questions about dark energy, planets outside our solar system, and infrared astrophysics. By conducting wide-field surveys, the telescope will explore the universe’s structure, evolution, and composition.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting launch no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
Quelle: NASA