NASA Roman Space Telescope’s Antenna, ‘Visor’ Deployed

NASA Science reports that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully unfurled both its high‑gain antenna and its visor‑like sunshade. The five point six foot wide antenna, weighing just twenty four pounds thanks to a carbon‑composite design, completed a four‑minute deployment at two zero three p.m. Eastern on August thirty‑first. The visor, a large sunshade that keeps stray light out, unfolded via three spring‑loaded booms in about eight minutes, finishing at six zero five a.m. Eastern on September first. With the antenna capable of transmitting up to five hundred megabits per second across roughly one million miles, Roman will downlink more data than any previous NASA astrophysics mission. NASA expects the telescope’s first images to appear by early twenty twenty‑seven.

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