NASA hosts media briefing for Roman Space Telescope launching 30 August

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Technicians and engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida use a crane to lift the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to a specialized work stand June 26, 2026, as the mission prepares to launch nine months ahead of schedule. The Roman Space Telescope will offer a field of view at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s, resulting in deep, sweeping explorations of the cosmos.

Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz)

Media are invited to join NASA for a virtual news conference at 2 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, July 29, to preview the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission, scheduled to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Aug. 30.

NASA will stream this event live through a variety of platforms. Learn where to watch online: https://www.nasa.gov/live .

Participants in the briefing, who will provide an overview of the mission and its status, include:

Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington

Jackie Townsend, Roman telescope project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

Julie McEnery, Roman telescope senior project scientist, NASA Goddard

Jeremy Perkins, Roman telescope integration and test scientist, NASA Goddard

Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the briefing to Rob Garner at rob.garner@nasa.gov . A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have a deep, panoramic view of the cosmos, generating never-before-seen pictures that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe. The observatory will usher in a new era of cosmic surveys, unveiling troves of celestial objects and shedding light on some of the universe’s most profound mysteries, including phenomena we can’t see. Roman also will showcase cutting-edge technology, including a test of the most advanced technology ever flown in space to directly image planets around nearby stars, a key step in NASA’s search for life on other worlds.

The Roman telescope is managed at NASA Goddard with participation by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and a team of scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc., L3Harris Technologies, and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging. Contributions to Roman also are made by ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.

For more information about NASA’s Roman telescope, visit:

https://nasa.gov/roman

-end-

Alise Fisher

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-2546

alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov

Claire Andreoli / Rob Garner

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

301-286-1940 / 301-286-5687

claire.andreoli@nasa.gov / rob.garner@nasa.gov

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Last Updated

Jul 21, 2026

Editor

Jessica Taveau

Location

NASA Headquarters

Related Terms

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Astrophysics Division

Goddard Space Flight Center

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Kennedy Space Center

Science Mission Directorate