August 30, 2026 — NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launches (Official NASA Recap)

Today, NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the ‘mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,’ the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, potentially measuring light from a billion galaxies in its lifetime.

This observatory will also be able to block starlight to directly observe exoplanets and planet-forming disks, complete a statistical census of planetary systems in our galaxy, and settle essential questions in dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.

Click here to keep track of its progress: science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope

Click here to meet Nancy Grace Roman

Biography, courtesy of NASA: Known as the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,” Nancy Grace Roman was born May 16, 1925 in Nashville, Tennessee, and died December 25, 2018. From a young age, Roman showed an interest in astronomy, and when she was 11 years old she organized a club with her classmates in Reno, Nevada. In this club they learned about constellations and celestial objects from a book. By high school, Roman realized that she had a passion for astronomy and wanted to pursue it. Her academic prowess was highlighted when she participated in an …