NASA completes assembly of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, now moving into integration and 2026 launch preparations

• Assembly completion moves Roman into integration and test and toward a 2026 launch — a near‑term change for launch manifest planning and pad/processing schedules; see recent integration milestones and environmental testing (acoustic, vibration, thermal‑vacuum).
• Roman’s wide‑field surveys will produce high‑value science (exoplanets, transients, cosmology) but its sensitivity makes observations vulnerable to optical contamination from rapidly growing LEO satellite constellations.
• Congressional scrutiny of facility and staffing changes at Goddard could affect prelaunch processing timelines and resources as Roman enters its final campaign.

integration milestones and environmental testing

optical contamination from large LEO constellations

facility changes at Goddard under congressional scrutiny