History of the Roman Mission

A collection of some of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope hardware milestones from the fall of 2023.

Primary Instrument for NASA’s Roman Completed for the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), this state-of-the-art tool will enable astronomers to explore the cosmos from the outskirts of our solar system to the edge of the observable universe.

A collection of some of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope hardware milestones from the summer of 2023.

The heart of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was completed and delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, for integration into the WFI (Wide Field Instrument). Called the FPS (Focal Plane System), it serves as the core of Roman’s camera.

Roman has successfully passed its critical design review, signaling that all design and developmental engineering work is now complete. “After seeing our extensive hardware testing and sophisticated modeling, an independent review panel has confirmed that the observatory we have designed will work,” said Julie McEnery, the Roman Space Telescope senior project scientist.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s primary mirror, which will collect and focus light from cosmic objects near and far, has been completed. Using this mirror, Roman will capture stunning space vistas with a field of view 100 times greater than Hubble images.

Roman’s ground system, successfully completed its preliminary design review. "This is an exciting milestone for the mission,” said Ken Carpenter, the Roman ground system project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We are on track to complete the data system in time for launch, and we look forward to the ground-breaking science it will enable." 

NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.

The telescope for WFIRST has successfully passed its preliminary design review, a major milestone for the mission. This means the telescope has met the performance, schedule, and budget requirements to advance to the next stage of development, where the team will finalize its design.

NASA has awarded a contract to Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, for the primary instrument components for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

NASA Announces Independent Review Panel Members for Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope. The panel will take a close look at WFIRST — now in phase A — ensuring its scope and cost at this early stage in the life cycle of the mission remain aligned.

Milestone # 7 for the WFIRST Coronagraph Technology Program was held.

WFIRST Formulation : "WFIRST has the potential to open our eyes to the wonders of the universe, much the same way Hubble has," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington.

NASA announced on December 17, 2015 the selection of the following Formulation Science Investigation Teams for the WFIRST mission. These teams will work for 5 years with the NASA and Project teams on science requirements, mission design and scientific performance predictions for the mission.

Two WFIRST-AFTA Instruments announced. Wide-Field Instrument and Coronograph

The Administrator directed the Science Mission Directorate to continue pre-formulation activities for the WFIRST mission. The Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA) Science definition team (SDT) study office begin developing telescope design.

Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST) was the top-ranked priority for a large space mission in the New Worlds/New Horizons (NWNH) report of the 2010 National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey for Astronomy