Roman
NASA's wide-field infrared survey telescope, with a 2.4-metre mirror the size of Hubble's but a field of view about a hundred times larger. Its Wide Field Instrument maps vast areas of sky to measure dark energy and to find thousands of exoplanets by microlensing, while a coronagraph tests the direct imaging of planets around nearby stars. It launched on a Falcon Heavy on 30 August 2026 toward the Sun-Earth L2 point.
Key figures
- Builder
- NASA Goddard, L3Harris
- Status
- In service
- First flight
- 2026
- Mass at launch
- 8.06 t