Nasa space telescope set to launch after surviving Trump budget cuts
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- Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is scheduled to launch at 7:26am ET Sunday from Kennedy Space Center, embarking on a million-mile journey to Lagrange point 2 where it will join Hubble and James Webb in orbit
- Roman telescope features a 300-megapixel infrared camera with a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble's, plus a coronagraph to photograph planets by blocking stellar glare
- Congress rejected Trump's 2025 proposed "extinction level cuts" to NASA's science budget in January, restoring the agency's funding to $24.4 billion, but the administration is pushing again for FY2027 with a 46% reduction to science projects
- NASA designed Roman to investigate dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets over an initial five-year mission that could extend to ten years, with first imagery expected in early 2027
- Falcon Heavy rocket will make its final flight carrying Roman, as SpaceX phases out both Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 to concentrate on Starship
Why it matters: Roman's launch preserves a decade-long, $4.3 billion flagship mission after Congress rebuffed Trump's attempt to kill it, but the administration is already gearing up for a second round of cuts in FY2027 — a 46% science budget reduction that the Planetary Society warns could terminate more than 50 missions. The telescope's 100x-larger field of view over Hubble gives astronomers an unprecedented survey tool for dark energy and exoplanet research starting in 2027.
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