NASA · Wednesday, September 16, 2026
NASA turns on Roman telescope’s main camera
The File desk · Sep 16, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC
Status
Confirmed from a NASA Roman mission blog post dated Sept. 15, 2026.
NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s main science camera is now on. A Sept. 15 Goddard blog post says the team activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera built to scan large stretches of sky in fine detail. Engineers also ran an early checkout of the Coronagraph Instrument, a system meant to block star glare so faint planets can be seen. The post says the Wide Field Instrument cooled to about minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit before its 18 detectors came online, and that a first test image captured out-of-focus starlight as expected while the optics are still being aligned. Josh Schlieder, the Wide Field Instrument scientist at Goddard, called the in-space activation a huge milestone. NASA says the mission remains on track to release first science images by early 2027 as Roman continues toward the Sun-Earth L2 point.
NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s main science camera is now on.
A Sept. 15 Goddard blog post says the team activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera built to scan large stretches of sky in fine detail.
Engineers also ran an early checkout of the Coronagraph Instrument, a system meant to block star glare so faint planets can be seen.
The post says the Wide Field Instrument cooled to about minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit before its 18 detectors came online, and that a first test image captured out-of-focus starlight as expected while the optics are still being aligned.
Josh Schlieder, the Wide Field Instrument scientist at Goddard, called the in-space activation a huge milestone.
NASA says the mission remains on track to release first science images by early 2027 as Roman continues toward the Sun-Earth L2 point.
What is still unknown or disputed
- Final focus quality and exact first-light science release dates will firm up through the remaining commissioning steps.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
NASA Activates Roman’s Primary Instrument, Checks Out Coronagraph
NASA Science / Goddard Roman blog · September 15, 2026
Successfully activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera; Coronagraph initial test; first photons of starlight captured in an out-of-focus performance assessment; science images expected by early 2027.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/2026/09/15/nasa-activates-romans-primary-instrument-checks-out-coronagraph/