NASA launches its Roman Space Telescope to explore the hidden universe
Updated on: August 30, 2026 / 9:06 PM EDT / CBS News
TL;DR
- The $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
- It will travel a million miles from Earth to map the large-scale structure of the cosmos.
- The telescope will investigate dark energy, which accelerates the universe's expansion, and dark matter, which holds galaxies together.
- An experimental coronagraph will analyze light reflected from exoplanets to determine their chemical composition.
- Roman is expected to discover over 100,000 exoplanets and catalog billions of stars and galaxies.
- The mission aims to revolutionize our understanding of the universe and potentially challenge the standard model of cosmology.
- The launch occurred from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.