Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Arrives in Florida Ahead of Launch

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived June 21 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning final prelaunch preparations. Teams completed integration and testing at Goddard Space Flight Center, loaded the nearly 18,000-pound (8,200-kilogram) observatory into a protected, environmentally controlled transport container, and drove it to the port of Baltimore.

From there the Pegasus barge carried the spacecraft down the Atlantic coast to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, which recently completed upgrades to receive Roman. Technicians met the telescope at Kennedy’s turn basin wharf, offloaded the trailer from the barge, and connected it to a truck for the transfer to the servicing facility.

Outside the building they will perform initial cleaning, then move the shipping container into the facility’s air lock for further cleaning while the air filtration system scrubs the environment. Once safe, the team will unbox the spacecraft, raise it to vertical in the air lock, and transfer it into the clean room.

roman telescope, nancy grace, kennedy space, goddard space, baltimore, pegasus barge, payload facility, servicing facility, clean room, air lock