WASHINGTON — NASA has selected SpaceX to launch the Roman Nancy Grace Space Telescope on a Falcon Heavy rocket, but at a much higher price than the agency’s previous contract.
NASA announced on July 19 that it had awarded SpaceX a contract to launch a Roman rocket on the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket in October 2026 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The contract is worth $255 million for launch and other mission-related costs.
Roman is the next major astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. The spacecraft features a 2.4 meter diameter main mirror, donated by the National Reconnaissance Office to NASA a decade ago, with extensive field instruments and crown paragraphs for research in cosmology, exoplanets, and general astrophysics.
The spacecraft with a mass of about 4,200 kilograms will operate from the Earth-Sun point L-2 Lagrange, a space region 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction away from the Sun. This is the same site where JWST and several other astrophysical missions operate.
The value of the launch contract is much higher than previous NASA awards for the Falcon Heavy mission. NASA awarded SpaceX a contract a year ago to launch Falcon Heavy for the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter in 2024 for $178 million. a September 2021 contract for launch of GOES-U Falcon Heavy cuaca weather satellitealso in 2024, worth $152.5 million.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy is offering a $97 million commercial list price. company This price went up earlier this year of $90 million, citing “excessive inflation.”
SpaceX may have no competition at all for the Roman launch. Tori Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, chirp In February, his company did not bid at all. His company, Vulcan Centaur, did not start after its first launch. Blue Origin’s New Glenn hasn’t launched either.
Roman is NASA’s primary mission not only for science but also for program management. Formerly known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), the mission is the top high priority mission of the 2010 Astrophysics Decadal Survey. The most recent decade survey, published in November 2021, concluded that Roman “remains strong and important to achieve the scientific objectives” set out in the previous survey.
Despite the initial challenges and several budget proposals the agency attempted to get the job done, Roman continued to thrive. Last year, though, The mission experienced a launch delay of seven months and an increased cost of $382 million The agency blamed the effects of the epidemic. The total mission life cycle cost is now $4.32 billion.
The Government Accountability Office’s assessment of NASA’s main program published in June warned of the potential for further delays in Romanian, citing problems with the spacecraft’s main mirror assembly and triggers for editing restrictions.
Agency officials said that keeping Roman on schedule and on budget was critical to building confidence in his ability to carry out major science missions after significant expense and scheduling overruns with JWST. Only then, they argue, will NASA be able to catch up with large space telescopes like those supported by recent astrophysic decadal surveys, such as the six-meter space telescope for observations in optical, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths.
“Number one on the priority list is ensuring that the Roman Space Telescope is delivered on cost and on schedule,” Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, said at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in June.
“Unless NASA can show that we have learned lessons from mistakes made in managing the James Webb Space Telescope program and can show that we can apply these lessons to other large, very expensive, and very difficult observatories, such as the Roman Nancy Space Telescope. Grace, no one will take us seriously.”
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