NASA awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX a contract to provide launch services for the next space telescope mission on Tuesday. The 2.4-meter-diameter Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch in October 2026, according to a press release from NASA. SpaceX will launch the telescope on a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida under the terms of the contract.
NASA estimates that the mission's launch will cost around $255 million, including launch services and other fees. The Roman telescope mission follows the launch of the $10 billion James Webb Telescope in December to search for early galaxies and habitable planets. After taking two weeks to unfold in space, the 6.5-meter Webb telescope has already captured colourful images of ancient galaxies and new stars.
According to NASA, the Roman telescope will be launched into space nearly five years later to study dark energy, dark matter, galaxies, and exoplanets, which orbit stars outside the solar system. According to the agency, this will help scientists understand the unanswered questions in cosmology.
NASA stated that the telescope will be in space for five years and that the mission could be extended for another five years. The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, but it was renamed after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman in recognition of her work at NASA, according to the agency.