Falcon Heavy Chosen To Launch 3.2 Billion Dollar Telescope!

Written By Josh G for Onkla

SpaceX has been chosen to launch the Roman Space Telescope onboard their Falcon Heavy rocket in October of 2026. This is a very exciting mission as the Roman Space Telescope is a successor for the James Webb Space Telescope. There are many new upgrades to the Roman Space Telescope, which will separate it from Hubble (HST) and James Webb (JWST). Falcon Heavy is also one of many different launch vehicles which could have been chosen to launch this spacecraft.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, or Roman Space Telescope for short, is the Wide Field Infared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). The Roman Space Telescope is NASA's first infrared space telescope. Roman is manufactured by NASA's Goddard Space Center, and controlled by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), JPL (Jet Propultion Labratory) and GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center).

An Image Render of the Roman Space Telescope

The mission is planned to last just five years, however will most likely be extended once placed into space. This mission will look into answering basic questions about dark energy, which is complementary to the ESA's EUCLID mission. Roman will also look into completing a census of exoplanets to help answer the questino if there is life in the universe, how comman are solar systems like ours, what kinds of planets exist in the cold, and more.

The Roman Space Telescope weighs 8.95 thousand pounds, and that increases to 9.18 thousand pounds with propellants loaded onto it. The main telescope has a diameter of 7.9 feet and has a three mirror anastigmat. The main telescopes focal ratio is f/7.9 and is 7.9 feet in diameter. The Roman Space Telescope also has a Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) which is a 300 megapixel infrared camera. It will also have a Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) which is used to allow astronomers to directly image planets in orbit around other stars by greatly reducing the glare from the host star.

Upgrades in the Roman Space Telescope over the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope are that instead of zooming in and taking a closeup picture. Roman can just take a wide angle picture and you can zoom in. Zooming in will not reduce much quality as each photo that the Roman Space Telescope produces it 300.1 megapixels large. For example, 4k quality has around 12 megapixels. You will be able to zoom in so far with the Roman Space Telescope's pictures. The reason that taking zoomed out pictures is important is that we can get a further out view of our universe that we have never seen before! This will be so cool to see!

SpaceX has been awarded the contract to launch this very important mission aboard their Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch will occur in October o2026 and will launch from historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon Heavy is a two and a half stage, heavy lift launch vehicle which has launched three mission at the time of writing this article. It has launched a demo mission, ArabSat 6A, and STP-2. The vehicle consists of a core stage, two side strap on liquid fueled boosters, a second stage and payload fairing. The core stage is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines which each burn RP-1, which is a highly refined form of kerosene, and liquid oxygen. The two side boosters also have the nine Merlin engines and are powered by the same propellants. The upper stage has a single Merlin 1D Vacuum engine which runs on RP-1 and LOx (Liquid Oxygen). The payload fairing is the same size as the Falcon 9 payload fairing which is 5.2 meters wide and 13 meters tall.

Falcon Heavy Inflight on Demo Mission from LC-39A

The Roman Space Telescope will begin its mission at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. The vehicle will launch and begin pitching east for its orbit insertion. The two side boosters will separate and either be expended, land on a droneship, or return to Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2). The core stage will continue running until MECO or Main Engine Cutoff, which is where all nine Merlin 1D engines will shutdown. Stage separation will occur which will then by shortly followed by M-Vac igntion where the single Merlin 1D Vacuum engine on the second stage ignites. That will then be followed by payload fairing separation which will occur during the early portions of the second stage burn. SECO-1 will then occur and get the Merlin Vacuum engine ready for its next burns to get the Roman Space Telescope into an L2 orbit. It is not currently known how many burns the second stage will perform, or the flight profile of the boosters. Another article will be written in 2026 with the mission updates.

Falcon Heavy was chosen due to many factors. First being that it is the cheapest on the market. Other competitors such as SLS, Delta IV Heavy, Vulcan, Ariane V, and others, are way more expensive than the Falcon Heavy rocket. Another factor is the reliability. The Ariane V is pretty reliable but not as reliable. SLS hasn't flown yet, and will no longer fly with the payload fairing. Delta IV Heavy is also a pretty reliable option, but very expensive. And then there is Falcon Heavy. A cheap rocket, hasn't failed once, and that seems like the best option. You might say though, Falcon Heavy has only had three flights. Yes, that is corret, however SpaceX haven't failed a mission since 2016, so that proves that they are a very reliable launch provier. I think that is why the Roman Space Telescope will launch aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket.

Do You Think That NASA Should Continue Building Telescopes?

• Yes, More After Roman Space Telescope!
• Roman Space Telescope Should Be The Last
• No, Cancel Roman Space Telescope