HOUSTON  –  A massive observatory that scientists have called a “discovery machine” has launched toward the cosmos, beginning a journey that could mark a significant shift in our understanding of the universe. Designed to seek out otherwise invisible and faint space objects, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 7:26 a.m. ET Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The observatory reached orbit about 10 minutes later. Over the next five years, the bus-size telescope’s observations could reveal answers to enduring mysteries such as dark energy, which fuels the inexplicable accelerating expansion of the universe, and dark matter, which provides the cosmos with structure but remains unseen. It could allow astronomers to spot previously unseen galaxies and exoplanets, worlds around stars beyond our solar system, as well rogue planets that don’t orbit stars at all. Dr. Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, reflected on the bittersweet feeling of watching the telescope launch Sunday morning.  “You see it growing up, and then it literally feels like it’s part of your team,” Fox said at a post-launch news conference. “It’s actually the member of the team that’s going to go on this grand expedition and send all that incredible treasure back to us here on Earth. But there is that moment where you think, ‘I’m never going to see that spacecraft again.’ I liken it to sending your kids to college.”  “Roman will give the Earth a new atlas of the universe,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as the space agency unveiled the completed telescope on April 21 at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. With surveying capabilities more than 1,000 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman will capture fundamentally different scientific observations that can’t be done with either Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope. “Together, the three missions will complement each other, giving us a more complete picture of the cosmos and advancing our understanding of the universe,” Fox said. The mission team also said Sunday that Roman’s mission has the possibility of being extended up to 10 years.   President Donald Trump called in during the Sunday news conference to congratulate the Roman team on their “great success,” calling the US the “hottest in space.”  Roman will take around three months to reach its ultimate orbital position of about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth, known as Lagrange Point 2, or L2.

The James Webb Space Telescope is also parked in this orbit, where spacecraft are balanced by the gravitational pull of Earth and the sun. L2 is about four times farther from Earth than the moon, according to NASA. In the meantime, the observatory will go through commissioning — testing out its instruments in space and deploying the antenna that will relay Roman’s massive imagery back to Earth.