NASA integrates coronagraph on the Roman Space Telescope

Oct. 29, 2024
The Roman Coronagraph Instrument is a technology demonstration that will launch aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, Chelsea Gohd writes for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

GREENBELT, Md. - NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date. The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take an important step in the search for habitable worlds, and eventually life beyond Earth, Chelsea Gohd writes for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Continue reading original article.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

29 October 2029 - This integration took place at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the space telescope is located and in development. This follows the coronagraph’s arrival at the center earlier this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California where the instrument was developed, built, and tested.

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument is a technology demonstration that will launch aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. Roman will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope and explore scientific mysteries surrounding dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. Roman is expected to launch no later than May 2027.

The Roman Coronagraph is poised to act as a technological stepping stone, enabling future technologies on missions like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.

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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics

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