Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launch Thread! [Falcon Heavy]

Time to launch another space telescope!

Scheduled for (UTC) 2026-08-30 11:26:04
Scheduled for (local) 2026-08-30 07:26:04 (EDT)
Launch site LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Launch vehicle Falcon Heavy
Center B1105-1 (expendable)
Booster B1072-3 (LZ-2)
Booster B1104-1 (LZ-40)
Customer NASA
Payload Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Mass 9,174 kg
Target Orbit Sun-Earth L2

Livestreams

Stream Link
NASA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wq3VHsL_bE
NASASpaceflight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8yDQhVgypw
International Rocket Launches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj19LFKSaFw
Space Affairs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6XP71_LYI
Everyday Astronaut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Ww6kQN4Qw
Spaceflight Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab0UUfVN1w8
The Launch Pad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8tDhC1Rb0
Avid Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBcmBRrNqUw
SpaceX https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2094006807245066584
The Space Devs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hr08IfmvRo

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 2nd launch from LC-39A this year

☑️ 122 days, 21:13:04 turnaround for this pad

☑️ 2nd Falcon Heavy launch this year, 13th overall

☑️ 673rd and 674th Falcon recovery attempts

☑️ 209th consecutive successful Falcon 9 / FH launch (if successful)

☑️ 105th SpaceX mission this year, 715th overall (excluding Starship test flights)

☑️ 105th SpaceX launch this year, 724th overall (including Starship test flights)

Payload info:

The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters in diameter (7.9 feet) and is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror. The Roman Space Telescope will have two instruments: the Wide Field Instrument and the Coronagraph Instrument.

The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, capturing more of the sky with less observing time. As the primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument will measure light from a billion galaxies over the course of the mission lifetime. It will perform a microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way to find ~2,600 exoplanets. The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.

13 points · 13 comments · view on lemmy.world

13 Comments

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 12d

T-5h27m. Weather is 50% go.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

Boostback burn shutdown.

MECO, stage separation, M-vac startup, and fairing separation.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

Side booster landings confirmed!

Edit, photo confirmation: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2094030749485646043

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

https://bsky.app/profile/rykllan.bsky.social/post/3muckbouees2z

#FalconHeavy fairing halves of Roman Space Telescope

Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz · 1 pts · 11d

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
BECO Booster Engine Cut-Off
MECO Main Engine Cut-Off
~ MainEngineCutOff podcast
SECO Second-stage Engine Cut-Off
SES Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, comsat operator
~ Second-stage Engine Start

[Thread #7 for this comm, first seen 31st Aug 2026, 06:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d (1 reply)

Liftoff!

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d
[ removed ]
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

Norminal side booster entry burns.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

They have polled go for propellant load.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

SECO, nominal orbit insertion.

Now in a coast phase, SES-2 scheduled for T+24:33.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

Weather is now 70% go.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d

BECO, side booster separation, and boostback startups confirmed.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11d