Roman is go for Sunday morning

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is “go” for launch. The agency and SpaceX finished the Launch Readiness Review on Friday at Kennedy Space Center, the last gate before countdown, NASA’s Roman blog says.

Liftoff is targeted for 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, from Launch Complex 39A. Space Launch Delta 45 weather officers put favorable conditions at 60 percent. It would be NASA’s sixth primary Falcon mission from Kennedy, after IXPE, Psyche, GOES-U, Europa Clipper, and IMAP.

Roman is built for deep, sweeping surveys: dark energy and dark matter, planets around other stars, maps of billions of galaxies, black holes, and a public data flood.

If the clock holds, commissioning starts on the way there. Science comes after arrival.