NASA Sets August 30 Launch for Roman Space Telescope on Falcon Heavy

NASA has opened media accreditation for the launches of its Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, both targeting liftoff in the coming months. The Roman observatory is slated to launch no earlier than 7:20 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Roman telescope is named after NASA's first chief astronomer. It was built and tested at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA describes the observatory as having a deep, panoramic view of the cosmos, generating never-before-seen pictures intended to revolutionize understanding of the universe.

Roman's vast, deep surveys will explore dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and objects ranging from our own solar system to galaxies at the edge of the observable universe. NASA states the observatory will generate images that revolutionize scientific understanding of the cosmos.

The Crew-13 mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-September from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will carry NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the International Space Station for a science and research expedition. This will be NASA's 13th commercial crew rotation mission using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. The crew members trained in their pressure suits inside a mockup Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Media interested in attending either or both launches must apply by set deadlines. International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 26. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, July 30. All accreditation requests must be submitted online through NASA's Kennedy media portal.

NASA states that Roman's deep surveys will explore dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and structures spanning from the solar system to the edge of the observable universe, and that the observatory's images will revolutionize understanding of the universe.

Accreditation deadlines for both launches fall on July 26 and July 30. Both missions target launch in the coming months, with Roman set for no earlier than August 30 and Crew-13 for no earlier than mid-September. For questions about accreditation or logistical requests, media are directed to Kennedy Space Center's newsroom.