NASA engineers have successfully integrated the state-of-the-art Roman Coronagraph Instrument with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Instrument Carrier at the Goddard Space Flight Center, marking a key milestone in the telescope’s assembly and readiness for its scheduled 2027 launch. This significant step brings the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, often referred to as “NASA’s next great observatory,” closer to its mission, where it will study distant galaxies, dark matter, and exoplanet atmospheres with unprecedented precision.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully attached the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier –a piece of infrastructure that will house the mission’s instruments before being integrated into the main spacecraft later.
“You can think of the Instrument Carrier as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to,” said Brandon Creager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Coronagraph at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The process took place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the space telescope is based and being developed.
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.
The instrument is expected to serve as a technological stepping stone, enabling future technologies on missions such as NASA’s projected Habitable Worlds Observatory, the first telescope intended exclusively to look for signs of life on exoplanets.
“In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology. We’ll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets,” said Rob Zellem, Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard.
The integration process began months ago, when mission teams from across NASA collaborated to plan the move. Additionally, after its arrival at NASA Goddard, mission personnel conducted tests to prepare the coronagraph for connection to the spacecraft bus.
During the integration process, the coronagraph, which is roughly the size and shape of a baby grand piano 1.7 m (5.5 feet) wide, was mounted onto the Instrument Carrier with the Horizontal Integration Tool.
JPL-developed specialized adapter was fitted to the instrument, followed by the Horizontal Integration Tool. The tool serves as a moveable counterbalance, so the instrument was suspended from it as it was gently placed into its final position in the Instrument Carrier.
The associated Horizontal Integration Tool and adapter were then removed from the Coronagraph. The Horizontal Integration Tool has already been used to integrate NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes.
Engineers also verified that blanketing layers were in place to insulate the coronagraph while it was in the Instrument Carrier. The coronagraph is intended to work at ambient temperature, therefore insulation is essential for keeping the instrument at the proper temperature in the frigid vacuum of space. This insulation will also give an extra barrier to stray light, which could otherwise obscure observations.
Following the successful integration, engineers will do several checks and tests to ensure that everything is properly linked and aligned before moving on to integrate the Wide Field Instrument and the telescope itself.
The telescope’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will allow scientists to capture vast swaths of space, about 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s field of view. This capability will enable large-scale surveys of galaxies, star clusters, and other structures, providing a detailed map of cosmic evolution across billions of years. By observing such extensive areas, the WFI will help measure the distribution of dark matter and dark energy, enhancing our understanding of the universe’s expansion and the forces shaping it.
The launch is expected to take place on a mission timeline targeting 2027, with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope slated for deployment aboard a heavy-lift rocket. Once in orbit, the telescope will undergo additional checks to confirm the functionality and alignment of all instruments, including the Roman Coronagraph and Wide Field Instrument, which are integral to its mission.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneering American astronomer often referred to as the “Mother of Hubble” for her instrumental role in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality.
Born in 1925, Dr. Roman faced significant challenges as a woman pursuing a career in astronomy during a time when science was predominantly male-dominated. She earned her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Chicago, eventually becoming NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy.
During her tenure at NASA, Dr. Roman was a trailblazer in advocating for and leading efforts to develop space-based astronomy.
Her leadership advanced space telescopes that would observe beyond Earth’s atmosphere, which led to the development of the Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope, launched in 1990, revolutionized our understanding of the universe and delivered some of the most iconic images in modern astronomy.
References:
1 NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope – NASA – October 28, 2024