NASA spacecraft

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Also roman space telescope · nancy grace roman space telescope · wfirst

Active mission — launched 2026-08-30 on a Falcon Heavy (science.nasa.gov), in science commissioning by 2026-10-22 (NASA's Roman blog). On its way to the Sun–Earth L2 point: NASA's plan is final orbit there about 100 days after launch, about early December (Roman blog, 2026-09-14); no word of its arrival was found on 2026-10-31. JPL's trajectory is tracking through 2026-10-18, a prediction after (Horizons).

At Earth.

Measured

Agency: NASA
Launched: 2026-08-30
From the Earth today: 1,315,409 km
Length: 12.7 m

How far, from the Earth

1.32 million km. To cross it:

Light4.39 seconds
Voyager 1's speed22 hours
Driving at 100 km/h18 months

Voyager 1 at the speed it moved outward over the year to 2026-10-25 (JPL Horizons). Driving: nonstop, never refuelling.

Facts

JPL Horizons trajectory round Earth: worst miss 127 km on the dates it was checked against (median 42 km); between those dates as much as about 381 km. Dates after the data was fetched are Horizons' predictions, which it revises as a mission flies.

Where this comes from

NASA/GSFC
Spacecraft trajectories: JPL Horizons, NASA/JPL-Caltech; each mission's agency credited on its card.
3D model: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope model: NASA/Christopher R. Meaney, NASA 3D Resources

Every catalogue Ouranos draws is credited on the credits page.