What's next for NASA's new Roman Space Telescope?

NASA says its Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is already ahead of schedule after a “flawless” launch Sunday morning. The $4 billion project launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, reaching the launch pad ahead of schedule and performing so precisely that Roman likely needs fewer trajectory corrections than planned. That, officials said, could allow more propellant to extend the observatory’s mission beyond its stated 5-year plan, potentially to a full decade. About 20 minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft deployed solar panels and a sunshield and will soon unfurl a high-gain antenna. It will conduct a mid-course correction burn en route over roughly three months to the second sun-Earth Lagrange point, L2, to begin studying dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. The first images are expected before winter holidays.