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Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

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May 2026

About This Article

The latest news from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Science Operations Center (SOC) at STScI

The first Roman call for proposals, run by the Roman Science Support Center at IPAC, closed on March 17, 2026. In total, 374 proposals were submitted. Of these, 65 requested new observations totaling 14,386 hours of telescope time. Given the 1,200 hours available for this cycle, the oversubscription rate for new observations is approximately 12 to 1. The Cycle 1 program selection is expected to be announced no later than the end of June 2026. The observatory has successfully passed all final pre-launch tests at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It will soon be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final preparations, in order to meet a launch readiness date no earlier than August 30. Given a launch in early September, Roman is expected to be in science operations by the beginning of 2027, after a planned 90-day commissioning period. Additionally, the Roman Science User Panel held its inaugural meeting in May 2026.

A grid of ten stars shown at increasing sizes relative to the Sun, which appears as a tiny dot labeled "Radius: 1.0" in the top-left corner. The remaining stars range from 6.3 to 33.7 solar radii, shifting in color from warm yellow-orange to deep red as they grow larger. The largest star, at 33.7 solar radii, dominates the bottom-right cell. Each star's surface shows bright, mottled patches that produce luminosity variations.
Roman observations will provide unique constraints on stellar populations within our galaxy. The cadence, duration, and spatial resolution of the Roman Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey are well suited for asteroseismology, the study of stellar oscillations, particularly in red giants. The image shows an artistic representation of giant stars of varying radii relative to the Sun and highlights bright spots that cause luminosity variations. By studying the oscillation periods and amplitudes of these variations, we can infer the masses, ages, and radii of such stars. Studying the bulge population will allow us to resolve its stellar age distribution and therefore refine chemical evolution models. Furthermore, estimating the ages of stars with planets detected by Roman through microlensing will provide valuable constraints for planetary evolution models. Weiss et al. (2025) estimate that Roman time-domain surveys will enable the study of approximately 300,000 red giant stars using this method. This would represent the largest sample of its kind ever collected.  Credit: NASA, STScI, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

Community Engagement

Ready, Set, Roman! Training Series

The Science Operations Center (SOC, STScI) and Science Support Center (SSC, IPAC)  hosted a series of webinars to assist users in exploring tools and resources for planning Roman observations and analyzing data. The series is currently on hiatus and will restart as Roman enters science operations. Links to all past webinars are available on the webinar website. Several of these sessions are particularly useful for those interested in exploring community-defined surveys or learning to use the Roman Research Nexus before the data arrives. To receive notifications, reminders, and Webex links for future sessions, please subscribe to our electronic mailing list by sending an email to ROMANTRAINING-subscribe-request@maillist.stsci.edu.

Conferences and Workshops

Roman Science User Panel

The Roman User Science Panel (RSUP) had the first in-person meeting in May 2026. The RSUP is tasked with evaluating the services and support provided by all elements of the Project, offering advice on improvements, adjustments, and additions as needed. The committee will meet semi-annually and submit written reports to the Roman Project, which will subsequently be shared with NASA and the astronomical community. Committee members are expected to serve terms of two to four years.

Planning and Analysis Tools

The Roman Research Nexus, a cloud-based science platform for accessing and analyzing Roman data, is now available. The Nexus includes pre-installed software, Jupyter notebook tutorials, access to simulated datasets, team workspaces, and real-time collaboration tools. More information about this service is available in the Roman documentation. 

Roman I-Sim v0.14 was released on May 15, 2026. This release includes several important updates and improvements. We encourage users to upgrade to this version to take advantage of these enhancements.

 

Documentation

User Handbooks and Guides

The Roman User Documentation System (RDox) website provides several handbooks, including the Roman Instruments Handbook, the Roman Data Handbook, the Simulation Tools Handbook, the Community-defined Surveys Handbook, the Roman Proposals Handbook, and the Roman APT User Guide. The documentation is periodically updated as the mission progresses toward launch. A complete set of Cycle 1 Call for Proposals RDox articles is available in PDF format.

Recent Publications 

Resources

There are many ways to get involved in the Roman Mission:

 

The NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed by NASA/GSFC with participation of STScI, Caltech/IPAC, and NASA/JPL.

Contact the Roman Help Desk

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