NASA’s newest space telescope launches on quest to find planets, explore secret dark energy

By AP 30 August 2026, 3:10 pm

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NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, encapsulated in a protective payload fairing atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, is seen at sunrise, August 29, 2026, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

NASA’s newest crown jewel blasts off to hunt for planets around other stars, explore secret dark energy and survey the cosmos like never before.

SpaceX launches the $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope shortly after daybreak aboard a triple-the-fire-power Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Roman is blazing toward an observation point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away that’s home to the Webb Space Telescope, one of NASA’s other big-ticket eyes in the sky.

The bus-sized telescope — named after the late Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer — will take more than three months to reach its destination. Once there, it will cast the widest gaze yet on the hidden parts of the universe from space, uncovering the unimaginable with unsurpassed speed.

“It’s going to find thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of planets, billions of galaxies and tens of billions of stars,” says NASA science mission director Nicky Fox. “It’s going to be able to do things that we’ve never been able to do before with its massive field of view.”

Fairing separation. Free of its protective shell, our Roman telescope has its first taste of space. pic.twitter.com/LnZx28lFpb

— NASA (@NASA) August 30, 2026