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NASA launches $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to probe exoplanets and dark energy

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Aug. 30 on a mission to survey planets beyond the solar system, investigate dark energy and produce wide-field, ultra-sharp views of the universe. The observatory uses a donated Hubble-class mirror originally built for a spy satellite.

Discovered 2026-08-30T07:20:30.746415-07:00 | 2026-08-30T07:20:30.746415-07:00

Briefing

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The launch moves NASA’s $4.3 billion Roman observatory from development into its science mission, with objectives spanning exoplanet discovery, dark-energy research and large-scale astronomical surveys.
Its wide-field imaging capability is designed to capture substantially broader views than Hubble; the resulting images would require roughly 500,000 4K televisions to display in full.
Roman’s successful liftoff follows final integration and launch-rehearsal milestones at Kennedy Space Center, marking the completion of a major program phase.

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