NASA's next-generation Nancy Roman Space Telescope aces crucial 'spin test'

NASA recently put a crucial part of the Roman Space Telescope — the Outer Barrel Assembly — through a rigorous "spin test" designed to evaluate its resilience against the intense gravitational forces it will encounter during launch. This test, a standard procedure in aerospace engineering, typically takes place inside a massive centrifuge that mimics the elevated gravity conditions of a space mission.

There is much anticipation around this next-generation telescope, which was named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer and "mother of the Hubble Space Telescope." It will have a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble's. The telescope, referred to in short as Roman, will work alongside other space-based observatories in order to directly observe exoplanets and planet-forming disks — which are currently observed indirectly.

It will also be used to complete a statistical census of planetary systems in our galaxy, and settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy and infrared astrophysics. "Roman's much larger field of view will reveal many such objects that were previously unknown" said Julie McEnery, Roman's senior project scientist at Goddard in a NASA statement from 2023. "And since we've never had an observatory like this scanning the cosmos before, we could even find entirely new classes of objects and events." 

The Outer Barrel Assembly is designed to protect the telescope and provide a structural support for other components. "It's designed a bit like a house on stilts," said Jay Parker, product design lead for the assembly at Goddard, in a statement.