NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Update: Winter/Spring 2025
Every day, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope moves closer to completion. This video highlights examples of the important hardware milestones from this journey. Roman now exists as two main pieces: a telescope section that includes the mirrors, instruments and support systems; and an outer section comprised of the solar panels and protective coverings. These two sections are tested separately prior to being joined together to create the complete observatory.
This video, covering the first half of 2025, opens with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Space Environment Simulator (SES). This thermal vacuum chamber can simulate the vacuum of space and the wide temperature range that Roman will experience there: from -310° Fahrenheit (-190° C) to 302° Fahrenheit (150° C).
The test versions of the Solar Array Sun Shield panels are installed onto the Outer Barrel Assembly inside Goddard’s largest clean room in preparation for testing. Multiple copies of hardware often exist, typically for testing purposes; flight hardware is the version that will actually fly in space on the final spacecraft. The flight solar panels are the only ones covered with delicate solar cells. The Outer Barrel Assembly is flight hardware that will protect and shade the primary mirror. With the solar panels and a deployable front cover that functions like a visor, it forms the outer, protective section of the spacecraft.
Roman's telescope section is covered in a protective tent and pushed outside of the clean room using pressurized air to float it like a hovercraft. Technicians and engineers lift it onto one of two shaker tables where it undergoes vibration testing. Roman undergoes a series of tests along each axis with increasing intensity to simulate components of launch stress. For the most intense tests of each axis, the spacecraft systems are powered up to ensure that everything can handle the stress.
Finally, Roman’s outer section is lowered over a structure made to simulate the telescope portion. Then it is covered in a protective tent, pushed out of the clean room, and crane-lifted into the SES chamber. With the tent around it, it is a very tight fit and requires several rotations to clear hardware in the chamber. The tent is lifted out and the chamber closed. This outer section underwent around a month of testing at low pressure and at a range of temperatures. Since the main tent was being prepared for Roman’s other section, a more temporary covering protected the outer section on the way out, and then technicians pushed it, uncovered, the last stretch into the clean room, giving the best-possible view of it at the end.
To learn more about all these systems and where they fit into Roman, visit: https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive/
Launching no later than May 2027, Roman is NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. An infrared survey telescope with the same resolution as Hubble but at least 100 times the field of view, Roman is being built and tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners from around the globe are contributing to this effort.
Learn more about Roman and the discoveries it will enable: https://www.stsci.edu/roman
https://science.nasa.gov/people/nancy-roman/
Producer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Videographers: Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Rob Andreoli (eMITS)
Drone Pilot: Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
Public affairs officer: Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Duration: 2 minutes, 21 seconds
Release Date: June 4, 2025
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