NASA INSTALLS PLAQUE ON NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE

Technicians installed a commemorative plaque on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on 28 July 2026, according to the space agency. The plaque honours the legacy of Dr Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency's modern science programme. The plaque also features a memory card containing 1,350,144 names submitted by people across the globe, including astronauts from NASA's Artemis II and Artemis III missions.

The Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch on 30 August 2026. Once in orbit, the observatory will be capable of blocking starlight to directly observe exoplanets and planet-forming discs. The telescope will also conduct a statistical census of planetary systems in the galaxy and address fundamental questions concerning dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics, according to NASA.

The naming of the telescope honours Roman's contributions to space science. The plaque represents a broader effort by NASA to commemorate her role in shaping the agency's scientific direction and to involve the global public in the mission through the inclusion of submitted names on the memory card.