This wide field, deep space mapping telescope will be ready for lunch as early as September 2026 — but will launch no later than Spring of 2027. It truly is a marvel of fine engineering.

And, in yet another echo of “Hidden Figures“, this will be the first space telescope ever named for a woman. We have mentioned it on and off over the last decade, as our regular readers will know. Here’s the latest, from NASA:

…The Roman observatory is slated to launch no later than May 2027, with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026. The mission will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with its deep, crisp, sweeping views of space.

More than a thousand technicians and engineers assembled Roman from millions of individual components. Many parts were built and tested simultaneously to save time. Now that the observatory is assembled, it will undergo a spate of testing prior to shipping to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in summer 2026….

Onward, smiling — into a beautiful new Spring morning. Even in these times of darkness, there are many reasons to smile and greet the day. Our advancing knowledge of interstellar space, chief among them:

^{[To be clear, I wish the Artemis crew all the best — but I just see scant valid scientific reasons, to risk these crewed Moon missions — other than 1600 Penn’s insatiable hubris, for a 250 video show. Out.]}

नमस्ते