The Silicon Graybeard has some info on a space telescope being launched on Sunday. Some background on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
I've mentioned a couple of times that NASA's next big telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is launching Sunday morning on a Falcon Heavy at 7:26AM EDT, but I suppose I was quietly assuming that everyone has an idea about what that telescope is.
I knew NASA was developing a new space telescope, but I didn't know the name of it, or that it was launching tomorrow.
Here's where it gets wild. The September launch for the NGRST is eight months ahead of schedule, and under budget. When's the last time you heard something like that? I'm not sure I ever have.
Government contracting under budget? Surely that is a sign of End Times, or something.
Anyway, click thru for the details on the telescope, the mission, etc. 7:26 AM on Sunday is a bit early for me, I will probably watch it in replay. SpaceX usually has the videos live on X, and leaves them up for later viewing. I haven't checked to see if they are on YouTube, but any launches carried by the news networks usually end up there.
Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteWent out into the yard to watch the launch this morning, and it was like virtually all SpaceX launches, every big moment was exactly on time. One of the NASA Spaceflight guys would say something like, "booster 1 will get its fueling start call soon" and most of the time the call out happened either during the last few seconds of what he was saying or a few seconds right after. We started watching right after 7:00AM and that held for the entire hour plus we were watching. The view outside was good, minimal thin clouds and good visibility the whole time. The first rumble, the one that seems to be from the launch, wasn't very impressive, but it got louder and shook things more when the sound from around the time when they dropped the two boosters got here.
While I'm a bit disappointed in the announcement that there will be no more Starlink launches from Cape Canaveral, other Falcon 9 missions will launch. The pace just goes down.