NASA has completed fueling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The observatory is targeting an August 30 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Launching nine months ahead of schedule

Technicians loaded 290 gallons of hydrazine into the observatory on July 25. NASA and SpaceX are targeting liftoff no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30, which is 11:26 UTC and 4:26 p.m. in Almaty.

After launch, Roman will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 point about one million miles, or 1.6 million kilometres, from Earth. Its primary mission is planned for five years, with potentially enough fuel for a further five-year extension.

Hubble-like sharpness on a much wider canvas

Roman and Hubble have primary mirrors of the same size: 2.4 metres. Roman will retain Hubble-like resolution while capturing a patch of sky at least 100 times larger in a single image.

Its vast surveys will help researchers study dark energy, dark matter, billions of galaxies and thousands of exoplanets.