NASA has completed the construction of #NASARoman! Last month, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the observatory in Maryland. After final testing, Roman will move to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations in summer 2026: https://go.nasa.gov/48EqnE8 🔭 🧪

This year, one of the many things I'm thankful for is that I get to be a member of this amazing team. In addition to completing an incredibly complex thermal vacuum test ahead of schedule, the team didn't flinch at the government shutdown (or other distractions) and just kept on going.

This announcement is a little delayed due to the shutdown, but back in October we completed our 65-day thermal vacuum test of the Roman spacecraft and Payload. The system worked great, and we're moving on to Observatory integration & test! www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation: Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.

I would stop, but I have to put in a good word for NASA and how it selects and funds science. I'm starting to think maybe Avi Loeb doesn't know what he's talking about? medium.com/@steve.desch...

Slightly diminish a band: Semimetallica

what a week for our future✨ #HWO25 🧵coming soon🔭🧪☄️ @mmacgreg.bsky.social @hbhammel.bsky.social @bmacastro.bsky.social @dawngelino.bsky.social @aussiastronomer.bsky.social @stsci.edu @aura-astronomy.bsky.social @justtheletteru.bsky.social @vividreams.bsky.social @leefeinberg.bsky.social +500 others

Former astronaut (that serviced Hubble) tells how servicing HWO is game changing. #HWO25

Chris Stark asking the tough questions at #HWO25.

At the #HWO25 conference this week to discuss the science and technology of the Habitable Worlds Observatory! Happy to answer questions here or in person if you can find me!

Do you want to hear Gimli narrate a video about the search for life in our universe? Of course you do! The Habitable Worlds Observatory project is still in its infancy, yet paradoxically it's the project I've worked on the longest. youtu.be/XJwDlLiQpS4?...

"Its legacy will not be boots on Mars, merely a lingering societal regret at throwing away so much, so quickly, to achieve so little." spacenews.com/the-administ... (reflects my own opinion, on my own time and my own device)

Meanwhile, we're (not so) quietly making progress on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! Watch (and hear) us shake the Spacecraft + Integrated Payload Assembly! www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

This is such a cool mission! science.nasa.gov/blogs/dragon...

*chef's kiss* www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Great timelapse of the #RomanSpaceTelescope coming together! Most of this happened in about a month and a half right before the holiday (the exception being the installation of CGI, which happened earlier in the fall). svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14746/#media...

Please support our JPL colleagues impacted by the wildfires!

This was our Christmas present last year: SCIPA! The team did an excellent job completing the mechanical integration of the Integrated Payload Assembly to the Spacecraft bus. www.nasa.gov/universe/nas...

My books of 2024:

And now - a complete Integrated Payload Assembly (IPA)! And if all goes well, by the end of next week, we'll have a Spacecraft bus + IPA (what we call SCIPA). www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

A partial Payload. Just need to install the Wide-Field Instrument next week! www.facebook.com/share/p/17xa...

We have a telescope!! It's been a very exciting week here at the Optical Telescope Assembly arrived at GSFC and was unpacked. We now have *all* the pieces of the Observatory here and can start putting them all together and testing the full system! www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

Bente is a valuable member of our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope optical systems team, overseeing all things optical on the telescope assembly! www.nasa.gov/people-of-na...

This is huge, huge progress - Congrats to our partners at L3Harris, and the many people at GSFC that contributed! Telescope performance is looking excellent, but we're not done yet. Gotta see how the telescope works when we take it cold later this summer! www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

Continued impacts of not having a budget yet... Thinking of my colleagues at JPL on this difficult day. www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-wor...

Check out all the amazing progress being made on the Roman Space Telescope at Goddard! And on top of this, both instruments are now in environmental testing, and the telescope has just started alignment - all at our partner organizations Ball, JPL, and L3Harris! svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14491/#media...

2023 Beer in Review! From left to right: Summer Shandy - wheat ale with a lemon twist (4.5% ABV, 13 IBU, 5 SRM) "Supernova" IPA - all Galaxy-hopped American IPA (6.4% ABV, 80 IBU, 8 SRM) "Dark Energy" Stout - dry Irish stout with a roasty finish (4.2% ABV, 29 IBU, 57 SRM)

Huh. Wasn't expecting *that* to be my first ever quote in @sciam.bsky.social, but OK. Regardless - this is a great article on the HabWorlds kick-off efforts!

Mmmm...10 gallons of beer.

Fall batch #2: a (hopefully) Dry Irish Stout.

A story in four parts: 1. Before I picked up leaves. 2. After I picked up leaves in the side yard 3. After I picked up leaves on whole property 4. The next morning. 😭

Brewing an all-Galaxy-hops IPA. One of two special batches this fall...

WFI is the primary science instrument on Roman, providing 100x the field-of-view of similar instruments on HST & JWST. It's now in the first of two thermal-vacuum tests that simulate the space environment in order verify that the instrument will operate the way we expect www.nasa.gov/feature/godd...

Roman is a high-gain antenna that happens to have a telescope attached to it 😂 twitter.com/NASARoman/st...

Honored to be part of this incredible team, and excited to take the next steps towards making #HabWorlds a reality!

And now negative. Woohoo!

And for my first post on Blue sky: Round two. Already starting to feel better, though, and it was not nearly as severe as the first time.