NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) on August 31, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope is designed to survey the universe more efficiently than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
The RST possesses a main mirror of the same size as the HST but is engineered to view 100 times more sky with each snapshot. This increased capacity is achieved through a more curved primary mirror, a closer secondary mirror, and a larger main camera. NASA states this capability will allow RST to discover more supernovas, providing insights into the universe’s expansion rate and composition, and identify a greater number of exoplanets, furthering the search for life beyond Earth.
Unlike the James Webb Space Telescope, the RST will orbit the Sun rather than the Earth. The launch was captured in a video released by NASA. NASA also announced that its Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) main site is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.
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