NASA Installs 1.35 Million Names on Roman Telescope Ahead of Aug. 30 Launch
Updated
Updated · NASA · Jul 31
NASA Installs 1.35 Million Names on Roman Telescope Ahead of Aug. 30 Launch
3 articles · Updated · NASA · Jul 31
Summary
July 27 technicians at Kennedy Space Center mounted a memory card holding 1,350,144 public-submitted names onto the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as part of a commemorative plaque.
The card will fly with Roman to the Sun-Earth L2 point about 1 million miles from Earth, where the observatory will operate in deep space.
NASA said the names came from around the world and include those of astronauts assigned to Artemis II and Artemis III.
Roman, named for NASA’s first chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, honors her push for space telescopes and broad public access to scientific data.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting launch no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Aug. 30 aboard a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.