Who was Nancy Grace Roman? NASA names its newest telescope after a scientific pioneer
The observatory will survey a sky area 100 times larger than Hubble’s in each exposure, NASA said.
- On Sunday, August 30, 2026, NASA launched the $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center at 7:26 a.m. EDT.
- Named for pioneering astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, the mission honors the 'Mother of Hubble' who shaped NASA's space astronomy program before dying in 2018 at age 93.
- With a 2.4-meter primary mirror matching Hubble's diameter, the telescope's field of view is more than 100 times larger, allowing rapid imaging of vast sky regions while maintaining comparable sensitivity.
- Traveling for more than three months toward the second Lagrange point, the spacecraft will settle about 1 million miles from Earth to begin its five-year mission searching for planets and dark matter.
- NASA Science Mission Director Nicky Fox expects the observatory to discover "thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of planets, billions of galaxies and tens of billions of stars" during its surveys.
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Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018) was NASA’s first chief astronomer, its first female executive, the “Mother of Hubble,” and the woman who built its space-astronomy programme from scratch — yet she remained far less famous than the telescope she made possible.
NASA's first chief astronomer created its space-astronomy programme, helped turn Hubble into a real mission and now has a newly launched observatory carrying her name. The post Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018) was NASA’s first chief astronomer, its first female executive, the “Mother of Hubble,” and the woman who built its space-astronomy programme from scratch — yet she remained far less famous than the telescope she made possible. appeared first …
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Who was Nancy Grace Roman? NASA names its newest telescope after a scientific pioneer
Roman was the first woman to serve in an executive role at NASA, and she helped get the Hubble Space Telescope approved, earning her the nickname “mother of Hubble.”
NASA’s newest telescope to explore hidden universe
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s newest crown jewel blasted off Sunday to hunt for planets around other stars, explore secret dark energy and survey the cosmos like never before. SpaceX launched the $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope shortly after daybreak aboard a triple-the-firepower Falcon Heavy rocket.
His field of vision is a hundred times greater than Hubble's: "He'll give us a new atlas of the universe"
Nasa's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, aboard SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, took off at 7:26 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral, Florida
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