BAE Systems is anticipated to test and deliver the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in summer 2024 in preparation for the observatory’s May 2027 launch.
The company said Tuesday it is in the final stages of WFI’s environmental testing at its Boulder, Colorado facility, having completed vibration and acoustic demonstrations, as well as the initial baseline and second thermal vacuum tests.
For the last phase, BAE Systems will ensure the telescope’s primary scientific instrument is not vulnerable to electrical disruptions by subjecting it to electromagnetic interference and compatibility tests.
“The WFI is an incredibly sensitive instrument, and these tests are vital to ensure its performance and safeguard the success of this groundbreaking mission,” said Alberto Conti, vice president and general manager of civil space for BAE Systems’ space and mission systems business.
The instrument is intended to assist scientists in identifying and studying new exoplanets, gaining more knowledge of dark energy and dark matter and exploring other astronomical activities by providing high-resolution images and detecting distant infrared light from around the universe.
It is also designed to have a field of view 100 times bigger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, its predecessor, and to deliver images at a faster rate to accelerate the survey of the cosmos.