Nasa’s Nancy Grace Telescope takes another step closer to August 30 launch

Nasa’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has entered one of the most important stages of its journey to space, with engineers now connecting the observatory to hardware that will eventually carry it into orbit.
The latest update from Nasa, released this week, said teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida had begun integration operations with SpaceX hardware ahead of the telescope’s planned launch later this month.
The telescope is now nine months ahead of its earlier schedule.
The telescope was carefully attached to its payload adaptor before being lifted onto a specialised structure that will secure it to the upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
This progress is not merely a mechanical procedure but also marks the point at which Roman, after years of construction and testing, is being prepared as an actual flight payload.
The next major step will be to enclose the observatory inside the Falcon Heavy’s protective payload fairing.
The fairing will shield the telescope from the intense aerodynamic forces and heat it will encounter while rising through Earth’s atmosphere.
Once encapsulated, Roman will be moved to SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A for final integration with the rocket.
Nasa and SpaceX are currently targeting no earlier than August 30 for launch.
The latest update gives a target liftoff time of 4:56 pm IST, from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center.