NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could have enough fuel for at least 22 years of potential science operations, more than double the 10-year fuel budget used in the mission’s original planning.
The extension is not a formal guarantee that Roman will operate for more than two decades, but it gives the observatory significantly more flexibility if its instruments and spacecraft systems remain healthy.
A highly accurate first maneuver saved fuel
Roman launched on Aug. 30 and performed its first mid-course correction the following day. NASA said the maneuver was executed with more than 99% accuracy and used less than 10% of the fuel budgeted for the burn: about 40 pounds instead of 441 pounds.
The spacecraft also launched lighter than the conservative maximum mass used in mission planning. That allowed engineers to fill its propellant tanks more fully than would have been necessary for the baseline mission.
More time for dark-energy and exoplanet science
Roman is traveling toward the Sun-Earth L2 region, where it is expected to enter its operational orbit after additional commissioning maneuvers. The telescope’s wide-field infrared camera is designed to survey large areas of the sky while studying dark energy, dark matter, galaxies and exoplanets.
NASA originally designed Roman for a five-year primary mission plus a possible five-year extension. The extra fuel could support a much longer program, although future mission duration will also depend on instrument performance, spacecraft health and funding decisions.
