Live: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA's Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center (Launch 07:25EST)

Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now ^ | 08/30/2026 | Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now

[know.your.why]

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center with NASA's $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A is scheduled for Sunday, August 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 UTC).

The Falcon Heavy's side boosters will return to land at Cape Canaveral just under eight minutes after launch. The rocket will take an easterly trajectory upon departure from Florida's Space Coast.

Live commentary will be provided by Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith starting about 2 hours prior to launch.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: romantelescope; spacex

[know.your.why]

Live: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA's Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center

https://www.space.com/news/live/nancy-grace-roman-telescope-live-updates-nasa-readies-roman-for-launch-august-30-2026

[know.your.why]

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is where coronagraphy stops being only a solar-physics tool or a ground-based exoplanet trick and becomes a flight test of the architecture needed to image Earth-like worlds. Roman is a 2.4-meter infrared observatory headed for a Sun–Earth L2 halo orbit. Its main camera is the Wide Field Instrument. Riding alongside it is a second, smaller instrument whose entire purpose is high-contrast imaging: the Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), sometimes nicknamed “Starglasses.”

[volare737]

Thanks for sharing….

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting.

[mewzilla]

For anyone else curious about the woman honored, Ms. Roman in her own words...

https://www.swarthmore.edu/meaning-swarthmore/reaching-stars

[equaviator]

Parting the breeze with ease!

[Rockingham]

Nancy Roman was accomplished as an astronomer and effective as a NASA executive. In short, she was not a DEI pick and is justly due the honor of having a major space telescope named after her.

[mewzilla]

Chill.

I never said she was a DEI hire.

But when I’m learning about someone I’m unfamiliar with, I appreciate hearing from that person in his or her own words.

She graduated from Swarthmore in ‘46.

We had a female family member who graduated with a degree in biology in the ‘30s.

Our family member had a similar experience.

I’m impressed by Ms. Roman’s achievements.

[Alas Babylon!]

I remember when stuff like this would often blow up at launch. We all prayed and crossed our fingers, watching with high anxiety...

Since Elon’s perfected SpaceX’s launching throughput, there’s a lot more certainty and a lot less worrying.

[volare737]

In awe here every time I see the boosters land perfectly back at the launch site,,,,,absolutely amazing technology and engineering!

[tennmountainman]

It was a beautiful launch of the Nancy Grace Telescope on a Falcon Heavy
Rocket.

[Rockingham]

I did not mean to imply that you regarded Nancy Roman as a DEI hire, I intended only a slam on the current malpractice of extending honors on that phony and political basis. In truth, we have an abundance of accomplished Americans of all kinds and backgrounds that deserve recognition — and Nancy Roman is justly among them.

[hanamizu]

In truth, we have an abundance of accomplished Americans of all kinds and backgrounds that deserve recognition

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And this is why the whole idea of DEI is so wrong.

[telescope115]

Thanks for the heads-up! I missed it live, but did watch the replay. What an incredible instrument! One terabyte of data per day…..wow.🙂

[Rockingham]

Amen. We too much take for granted the talent, accomplishment, and quality of character among ordinary Americans. It is a defining feature of our country that contradicts the Marxist premise of DEI.

[SunkenCiv]

🚀🛰️

[Semper Vigilantis]

I for one believe that the whole purpose of DEI was to further divide this country. Nowadays anyone that is not a WASP Male is automatically suspected of not earning the position/credit/honor.

[Rockingham]

You are correct. DEI is Marxist in concept and hostile to America's founding principles. The following book elaborates on your point.

The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart, by Jeremy Carl

While political and media elites hysterically condemn an imaginary epidemic of “white supremacy,” in the real world, white Americans are often openly discriminated against. Indeed, anti-white policies have become so interwoven in the fabric of American life that we often fail to recognize them.

Launched with a laudable appeal to justice for all, regardless of skin color, the civil rights movement has increasingly betrayed that vision. As activists look for racism where it no longer exists, the failure to achieve perfect equality of outcomes is now used to justify discrimination against whites in business, education, law, the military, entertainment, and even the church.

The Unprotected Class provides a comprehensive explanation of how we got here and what we must do to correct our dangerous course.