NASA chooses SpaceX for $255 million Falcon Heavy telescope launch from Florida


Emre Kelly, Florida Today
Thu, July 21, 2022 

SpaceX's three-core Falcon Heavy rocket will launch a new NASA space telescope from Florida in the coming years, the agency said in this week's announcement of the $255 million contract.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA, is slated to fly from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A no earlier than October 2026. The roughly $255 million price tag includes launch-related costs; the telescope itself is expected to run up a tab between $3 and $4 billion.

So far, the Space Coast has hosted three Falcon Heavy launches since the triple-core rocket debuted in February 2018. It's a slower pace than expected for SpaceX's first heavy-lift vehicle that typically includes side boosters landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but at least a dozen more are planned through 2026.

With an eight-foot primary mirror, Roman sits on the smaller end of the modern telescope spectrum. The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, for example, has a 21-foot primary mirror but also works a different kind of mission. Roman will use a much wider field-of-view to dig into dark energy, exoplanet, and astrophysics investigations.

A rendering of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope. It was later renamed for Roman's astronomy work and leadership at NASA.

More: Astronomers on Webb telescope images: 'Like a kid in a candy store'

More: At KSC, SpaceX Falcon booster exhibit is ready to wow guests

Roman's wider field-of-view also means it can observe areas much faster than the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, which could take years to collect images of the same areas due to its "zoom level" on the universe. With all three major telescopes – Hubble, Webb, and Roman – in play after 2026, NASA says future observations will be able to leverage the advantages of all three.

"WFIRST’s surveys don’t require that we know exactly where and when to look to make exciting discoveries," Julie McEnery, the Roman Space Telescope's senior scientist, said in a NASA technical document. "The mission will turn on the floodlights so we can explore the universe in a whole new way."

The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, but was renamed in honor of Roman and her astronomical work at NASA. She played key roles in the deployment of other space telescopes like Hubble, for example.

SpaceX's selection for the contract continues to push its manifest – past and present – beyond just communications satellites. The company has been selected for national security missions like GPS, delivering Artemis program payloads to the moon for NASA ahead of astronauts arriving on the surface, and now multibillion-dollar science investigations like the Roman telescope.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA chooses SpaceX for Falcon Heavy telescope launch from Florida