NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Highlights: Winter/Spring 2026
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now complete. This video, covering the first half of 2026, highlights examples of the final hardware milestones.
It opens with an aerial view of the complete observatory inside NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s largest clean room, the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility. The room is a class 10,000 clean room with over one million cubic feet of space.
Parts of Roman stow for launch. Once in space, these deployable components move into their operational positions. Engineers test these deployments on the ground to make sure they will go as planned in space. Four of the six Solar Array Sun Shield panels deploy. They fold against the spacecraft to fit inside the rocket fairing and then deploy in space to make a large flat plane that both collects light to generate electricity and helps keep the rest of Roman cool. The Deployable Aperture Cover (DAC), protecting the mirrors during launch and then unfolds to help shield them from sunlight, also test deploys. During this test, lines connect to it and pull upward to negate Earth’s gravitational forces, that Roman will not experience in space.
In preparation for vibration and acoustic testing, technicians put a clean tent over Roman and transport it out of the clean room. They push it next to the massive vibration tables, one shakes horizontally and the other vertically. A crane lifts Roman and the tent onto the tables, and also performs a 90-degree rotation after one horizontal test so that Roman can be tested on a different axis with the same table. Engineers attach hundreds of sensors and run tests of increasing intensity. During and after each test, they carefully study the data to make sure that Roman is behaving as anticipated.
For the acoustic test, they push it into the test chamber where a six-foot-tall horn projects up to 150-decibel sound at varying frequencies. A thick door seals the chamber and prevents most of the sound from escaping, although ear protection is still required for anyone nearby during a test. These tests are mostly to ensure that Roman can survive the rigors of launch. Once in space, it won’t be subjected to nearly as much force.
Once the tests are successfully completed, Roman re-enters the clean room and the tent is removed. Technicians lift Roman to a special rollover fixture that can safely tilt and spin Roman’s 18,500 pound mass. Once Roman is tilted horizontal for the first time as a full observatory, engineers slowly spin it through 360 degrees to make sure everything stays in place like it is supposed to.
After the rotations, technicians carefully perform a manual opening of the DAC to reveal the mirror. In this position, they can inspect the entire optical path all the way back to the instrument sensors and perform surface cleaning on the inside of the protective outer barrel and DAC. This is also a chance for final goodbyes to the mirror. Once the DAC is closed, no one will ever see the mirror as clearly again.
With all the assembly and testing at Goddard completed, the team begins the delicate process of loading Roman into an airtight container known as the Conditioned Housing for Air, Road, Imaging optics assembly, and Observatory Transport (CHARIOT). First they attach arms which will form the interior sides and support Roman. Then they lift and move Roman into the lower bed of the CHARIOT. An inner lid goes on first, followed by a larger outer lid with ducting to keep the observatory the right temperature and preserve the clean environment. As the CHARIOT leaves the clean room, Roman takes its first step in the journey to space.
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)
John Philyaw (eMITS)
Jolearra Tshiteya (ASRC Federal)
Drone Pilot: Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Duration: 3 minutes
Release Date: July 31, 2026
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