NASA's New Space Telescope Blasts Off

NASA launched a huge new telescope on Sunday morning. It is called the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carried it into space. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Liftoff came at 7:26 a.m. Eastern time. About thirty minutes later, Roman separated from the rocket.

The telescope then began checking its own systems. Roman is expected to work for five to ten years. Scientists will use it to study how the universe has grown. It will also hunt for planets circling far-off stars. Those planets are called exoplanets. Researchers hope Roman helps explain dark energy, a mysterious force pulling galaxies apart.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope rocketed into orbit early Sunday morning, beginning a mission scientists hope will reshape our understanding of the universe. The $4.3 billion observatory lifted off at 7:26 a.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Roman separated from the rocket about thirty-one minutes after launch and began powering up its onboard systems, according to NASA and SpaceX officials.

The telescope is named for Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer, who helped build the agency's early space science program decades ago. Over the next five to ten years, Roman will scan wide areas of the sky in search of answers about cosmic expansion and the universe's history. Roman has a much wider field of view than older telescopes such as Hubble, meaning it can capture far more sky in a single image.

One of Roman's main goals is studying dark energy, a mysterious force that appears to be pushing galaxies apart at an increasing rate. Researchers still do not fully understand what causes dark energy, and Roman's observations could offer important new clues. The telescope will also search for exoplanets, or planets orbiting distant stars, using techniques that can detect worlds far smaller than the outer planets in our own solar system.

NASA officials said the launch and separation went smoothly, with no reported problems. Engineers will spend the next several months testing Roman's instruments before the telescope begins its official science mission. Scientists around the world are expected to use its data for years to come, adding Roman to a growing fleet of tools helping humanity map the cosmos.