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  1. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    May 2026

    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.

  2. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    March 2026

    Proposals for Roman observations should be submitted by March 17 (5:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time). STScI and IPAC/Caltech are hosting a series of training webinars to help scientists plan their observations effectively. The Roman Research Nexus, a cloud-based scientific computing environment designed to support work with Roman data, is now available for use. The observatory remains on track for shipment to Cape Canaveral in mid-June and launch not earlier than September 2026.

    Distribution of galaxies (left) and voids (right) in numerical simulations

  3. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    December 2025

    The Nancy Grace Roman Observatory is now fully integrated and tested at the Goddard Space Flight Center and is on track for launch in September 2026. The Cycle 1 Call for Proposals was published on December 10, 2025 with submission deadline in March 17, 2026. Meanwhile, the Science Operations Center is finalizing the data pipeline and building the infrastructure for large-scale data archiving. As the proposal deadline, launch, and start of operations approach, the Science Operations Center and Science Support Center have begun hosting a series of training webinars. These sessions introduce Roman users to tools designed to help scientists plan observations and analyze their data effectively.

    The extent of the Roman Galactic Plane Survey, the first approved General Astrophysics Survey program of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is shown overplotted on the Gaia optical star-count map

  4. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    October 2025

    The thermal vacuum testing of the combined spacecraft, telescope, and instruments completed successfully on October 14 at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The Science Operations Center at STScI used the resulting data to test the cloud-based data processing system from end-to-end for the first time and is working on finalizing the data pipeline and the infrastructure to archive the data. The Cycle 1 Call for Proposals is expected in November 2025, with a deadline in March 2026; however due to the U.S. federal government shutdown these dates may change. The Roman Project Office is now aiming for a late September 2026 launch date. As the Call for Proposals, launch, and beginning of operations approach, the Science Operations Center and the Science Support Center at IPAC will be offering a series of webinars to introduce Roman users to tools developed to help scientists analyze data and plan observations.

    Graphic shows a simulated Roman Space Telescope image with four pullouts to show examples of gravitationally lensed galaxies.

  5. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    June 2025

    The Science Operation Center is hard at work preparing for the Cycle 1 Call for Proposals in Fall 2025. The expected date for the telescope launch is currently October 2026 and no later than May 2027. STScI will host a symposium on "Cosmic Cartography" on July 14-18 in Baltimore, MD. Registrations close on June 9. Several Roman events will be held at the upcoming AAS meeting #246 in Anchorage, AK. Meanwhile, the SpaceCraft + Integrated Payload Assembly (SCIPA) has been undergoing tests at the Goddard Space Flight Center in preparation for the thermal vacuum testing in late Summer 2025.

    A pattern of light blue lines on a dark background is repeated into a mandala pattern.

  6. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    March 2025

    The Roman telescope is getting assembled at Goddard. Instruments and telescope are integrated and the deployable aperture cover has been successfully installed. The Core Community Survey Definition Committees have produced their reports and the Roman Observation Time Allocation Committee has started reviewing them. The Roman Research Nexus is in full development and testing continues. The next Roman Science Conference on "Cosmic Cartography" will be held in Baltimore on July 14-18 and abstracts are accepted until March 28.

  7. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    December 2024

    Roman’s Wide Field Instrument arrived at Goddard last summer. The Core Community Survey Definition Committees have worked on their recommendations and the Roman Observation Time Allocation Committee will soon start reviewing them. Several members of the SOC will be at the winter AAS in National Harbor; we hope to see you in person soon!

    Artist’s concept of spiral galaxy at the center of a much larger spherical halo of stars, with ground-based photograph pulled out to show details of the central core and spiral arms. View of the galaxy is halfway between face-on and edge-on, with disk oriented 45 degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal. Artist’s Concept: Galaxy core is whitish yellow, circled by a brownish purple disk. Grainy white halo enveloping the disk is dense and bright near the center, becoming more diffuse and fading out with distance from the main disk. Halo is mottled with a wispy cloud-like appearance, suggesting variations in density of stars. Halo covers an area of sky about 250 times greater than main disk. Photo: Telescope zoom into galaxy core and disk, outlined in yellow, shows brown dust lanes tracing spiral arms that wrap clockwise around fuzzy core; cloud-like patches of blue and red; star-like points of light of various size and brightness. Galaxy is 45 times larger in zoom than in illustration.

  8. Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

    June 2024

    Roman’s Wide Field Instrument is completing its thermal vacuum tests and will join the telescope at Goddard later this summer. It’s time to plan the community-defined surveys, including a Galactic Plane General Astrophysics Survey, and you can help! A recent STScI newsletter summarizes how you can get involved. Members of the SOC will be at the summer AAS in Madison, and in July (9-12), please consider joining the next Roman Science Conference at IPAC. We hope to see you in person soon.

    An illustration of a star being torn apart by a black hole. To the right of center, there is a black sphere representing a black hole, surrounded by many thick wisps of light. To the left of it, there is a fuzzy, bright white object representing a star. The star has a tail of gas coming off its right, which is brightest near the star, but becomes grayer further away. This tail flows into the black hole’s right side and swirls around the black hole in a horizontal disk. The disk is thicker toward its center and more diffuse farther away. Material in the disk also appears to wrap around the top of the black hole. Above and below the black hole, there are purple rays of light that extend upward and downward in two broad cones. This scene sits amid a black backdrop of space with many dim, white stars in the background.

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

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