NASA is preparing to launch its new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope today, Sunday, August 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch window is scheduled to open at 7:26 a.m. Eastern Time, or 2:26 p.m. Kenyan time.
Weather remains a major concern, with forecasters giving a 50 percent chance of favourable conditions for Sunday’s attempt.
Once launched, Roman will travel about 1.6 million kilometres from Earth to Lagrange Point 2, a gravitationally stable region on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun.
The telescope is designed to conduct wide surveys of the universe, taking thousands of images each day. Scientists will use its data to study dark matter and dark energy, the evolution of galaxies and planets orbiting distant stars.
Unlike Hubble and James Webb, which focus on relatively narrow portions of the sky, Roman will have a much wider field of view, allowing it to survey large sections of the universe more quickly.
NASA says the observatory is about the size of a tour bus and weighs roughly as much as a T-Rex.
After reaching its destination, Roman will undergo about three months of deployment, calibration and testing before beginning scientific observations. NASA expects its first science images to be released in early 2027.