Trump tried to scrap NASA's Roman Space Telescope last year. Now it's ready to launch
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to launch, but the observatory almost had a very different fate. President Trump's leaked budget proposal last year marked it for cancellation.
NASA's Roman Space Telescope, set to launch on August 30, has overcome a potential cancellation threat last year. The spacecraft, a next-generation research satellite, was nearing completion when President Trump's leaked budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 sparked fears of its demise. However, the administration's revised budget request allocated $156.6 million to Roman's continued development, though it was less than half of what the project received the previous year.
Despite the reduced funding, the mission's team remained focused, pushing forward with accelerated testing and working extended hours. The telescope, which will be positioned at the sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, aims to study dark matter and dark energy, exoplanet discoveries, and capture wide-field images of the universe.
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