From 10 to 22 years: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's mission has just been extended

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been extended from its original five-year mission to potentially 22 years. NASA announced this extension due to sufficient fuel for the mission. The fuel is the limiting factor for mission length, and several factors contributed to the extended mission, including precise launch, spacecraft weight changes, and the efficiency of the first midcourse correction. The telescope's mass changed during design and build, allowing for more fuel to be loaded. The first midcourse correction was extremely accurate, requiring less fuel than planned. The telescope will also have a second midcourse correction, which will require even less fuel than planned. The extra fuel allows for four more years of observations, adding up to an extra 12 years of observations. The mission's initial five years are dedicated to Core Community Surveys, and the extended mission will be dominated by the General Observer (GO) program, which will provide the telescope's observing capabilities to the wider community. The GO program has already had about 50 candidate programs ready to go. The telescope also has a coronagraph instrument that is a technology demonstrator for a future planet-finding mission. The mission is approaching actual operations, and once in orbit, it will only need periodic stationkeeping burns. The mission's extension is a result of meticulous planning and execution. The telescope was initially named WFIRST, but was renamed in honor of NASA's first chief of astronomy. The telescope's initial design called for a 1.5-meter mirror, but eventually ended up with a 2.4-meter mirror. The mission's extension is a significant development for the telescope's science operations.

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