NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

New Capabilities

Lead center managing Roman's development, integration, and testing

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is fully built, under budget, and targeting a September 2026 launch — eight months ahead of its formal deadline. Unveiled on April 21, 2026, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the observatory carries a 300-megapixel infrared camera with a field of view at least 100 times wider than Hubble's, designed to photograph a billion galaxies and discover more than 100,000 new worlds over its first five years. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who attended the unveiling, noted that what Hubble would need 2,000 years to survey, Roman can cover in a year.

Updated Apr 22

New Capabilities

Center for skeptical reanalysis of biosignature claims

Cambridge astronomers announced they'd found dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of K2-18b—molecules that, on Earth, only life produces. The detection using JWST's mid-infrared instrument hit 3-sigma confidence, meaning a 0.3% chance it's statistical noise. If real, it's the strongest evidence yet of biology beyond our solar system.

Updated Jan 7