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Planetary Radio • Aug 25, 2026

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is ready to launch

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On This Episode

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Julie McEnery

Senior project Scientist for Roman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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Jason Rhodes

Principal Scientist for Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society

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Sarah Al-Ahmed

Planetary Radio Host and Producer for The Planetary Society

After decades of development, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing to launch. Once in orbit, Roman will conduct the widest surveys of the universe ever attempted, probing the nature of dark energy, discovering thousands of new exoplanets, and capturing images of billions of galaxies. In this episode, we sit down with Julie McEnery, senior project scientist for Roman at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and Jason Rhodes, project scientist for Roman at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to explore what the telescope will reveal and how scientists around the world will be able to access and work with its data. Plus, in What's Up, we look at Roman's coronagraph and what it will take for the Habitable Worlds Observatory to push that technology far enough to image Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope illustration
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope illustration The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is named after NASA's first Chief of Astronomy.Image: NASA
Nancy Grace Roman
Nancy Grace Roman Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, is often referred to as the mother of Hubble thanks to her tireless efforts to bring the space telescope to fruition.Image: NASA
Roman vs Hubble views
Roman vs Hubble views A composite image comparing how much of the sky NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope covers with how much the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope covers. The white central square is an image of the Pillars of Creation from Hubble, while the surrounding image of the wider Eagle Nebula simulates how much Roman would image in a single observation. The actual wider image is from a ground-based telescope.Image: L. Hustak (STScI)
Simulated Roman observation
Simulated Roman observation The Andromeda Galaxy superimposed with the footprint of what would the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's detector would cover in a single observation (white squares) compared to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's footprint (red square) and entire survey of Hubble's (cyan outline). The Moon is also shown for scale against the night sky.Image: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Digitized Sky Survey and R. Gendler; NASA / GSFC / ASU / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Nancy Grace Roman primary mirror
Nancy Grace Roman primary mirror Part of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope under inspection at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.Image: NASA / Chris Gunn

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