NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Launch Broadcast Begins

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, encased in a protective payload fairing, stands poised on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as preparations for the mission's launch scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, advance. The live broadcast commencing the event will originate from the Kennedy Space Center, starting at 7:26 a.m. EDT.

The U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron recently assessed a 70% probability for a successful launch. Within 13 minutes, the NASA launch manager will verify the rocket's readiness to commence propellant-loading operations. The Falcon Heavy is set to deliver the Roman telescope along a path to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2), situated approximately 1 million miles away from Earth.

This journey, including Roman's deployment, activation, calibration, and tests, will span roughly three months of commissioning. Roman's mission encompasses the exploration of dark energy and dark matter, a comprehensive survey of planetary systems, and a broad spectrum of additional astrophysics research. Coverage of the launch will be accessible via NASA's Roman blogs, the live broadcast on NASA+, and various other platforms.

To learn more about how to watch, visit www.nasa.gov/live. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is overseen at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with contributions from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the California Institute of Technology/IPAC in Pasadena, California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a diverse team of scientists from various research institutions.

NASA's Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is tasked with managing Roman's launch service. The principal industrial partners include BAE Systems Inc., L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.