APOD: 2026 August 31 – Launch of the Roman Space Telescope

The featured APOD video shows the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. RST will orbit the Sun, like the James Webb Space Telescope, rather than the Earth.

RST has the same size main mirror as the Hubble Space Telescope but sees 100 times more sky per snapshot. That's achieved because RST's main mirror is more curved, its secondary mirror is closer, and its main camera is larger. This design lets it survey more area quickly, likely enabling discovery of many more supernovas (teaching us about the expansion rate and composition of the universe) and many more exoplanets (teaching us about the possibilities for life elsewhere).