NASA’s Roman Space Telescope: First-Stage Liquid Oxygen Loading Begins

NASA Science reports that liquid oxygen is now being poured into the three first‑stage cores of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, preparing the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The telescope, housed in the rocket’s fairing at Launch Complex thirty‑nine A, carries a 300‑megapixel infrared Wide Field Instrument that offers Hubble‑like resolution but with a field of view a hundred times larger. Its Coronagraph Instrument will block out starlight to directly image nearby exoplanets and dusty disks. With loading in progress, the mission stays on track for lift‑off at seven twenty‑six a.m. eastern daylight time.

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