Watch NASA and SpaceX launch the Roman Space Telescope

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, and liftoff

Go Falcon Heavy and go Roman Space Telescope. And liftoff of NASA's Roman Space Telescope on a mission to revolutionize our understanding of the universe

All M1D chamber pressures are nominal. Falcon Heavy has cleared the tower and is on its way to space

Looks like a beautiful launch so far Steve. Great shot there from on top of the rocket looking down and then now tracking up looking

at those 27 Merlin engines lifting the Falcon Heavy and Roman Space Telescope off into space

Falcon Heavy soaring. Power. Central Energy nominal. Falcon Heavy soaring into the Florida sky

We are 53 seconds into this flight. Rocket will be heading into Max Q

Falcon 9 is supersonic. Picking up speed and altitude very quickly. Engines will throttle down slightly to reduce the mechanical pressure

and the mechanical stress on the rocket. Max Q. And we heard that call out for max Q

which is the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure as the rocket is ascending

Now, coming up in just under a minute from now, we're going to have a large series of events happening back to back

We'll be starting with BECO, or booster engine cutoff, where the engines on those boosters will power down

We'll then have side core separation of those two boosters, followed by that. We will then have MECO of the main core and then stage separation of that

as well as second engine start one following that. Now those two boosters will be heading

back to Florida today. They'll be doing boost back burns to put them on trajectories back towards

Kennedy in Florida. Now we should be hearing that call out for BECO in just about 13 seconds from now

Sight booster separation confirmed And there we saw stage separation and you can actually see the view

from the main core on the left and then the two side cores on the right hand side of your screen

PY boost back startup. NY boost back startup. And there's confirmation of the boost back startup

on those two side core boosters. So at this point both Falcon Heavy side boosters are performing

their boost back burns, which is the first of three burns each side booster will undergo

on the way back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Now, the primary objective of the boost

back burn is to quickly reorient the side boosters onto the required return trajectories

and this is required in the event of a return to a launch site as opposed to a drone ship ocean

recovery. And today, they're headed towards landing zones 2 and 40 in Florida. Now, meanwhile

in the center core, the nine M1D engines are continuing to power Falcon Heavy on its nominal

trajectory. Now the engines on that center core are still burning right now. They're set to burn

for about another 12 seconds or so, and then they'll throttle down and we'll have our MECO

our main engine cut off of that, and then we'll have stage separation of this center core and the

second stage shortly thereafter. PY boost back shutdown. NY boost back shutdown

Pico. Stage separation confirmed. And great shot there as the first, as the main core and second stage separate from one another

And we just heard that call out for second engine startup. and you can see the MVAC engine there on your screen with a beautiful view of Earth behind it

Faring separation confirmed. And we also just heard confirmation of faring separation

As I said earlier, those faring halves are no longer needed. And you can see one there on your screen

And four minutes, 38 seconds into the mission, Roman Space Telescope gets its first taste of space

Payload fairing is jettisoned. All vehicles are following nominal trajectories. And we are coming up on an expected AOS, or acquisition of signal, important step

Really just getting spacecrafts just sending its pulse over the NASA systems Yeah that right The acquisition of signals should hopefully be coming up here in a minute or so That be the first opportunity that the spacecraft can go and quote talk to the ground station

the folks back at Goddard, to make sure that it's still happy and healthy on the way during the Stage 2 burst burn

But everything's looking good as far as telemetry is concerned for MVAC. You can see there the nozzle extension glowing orange as it's going around the Earth

Launch of the Roman Space Telescope looking very good as the Falcon Heavy carries the observatory into orbit

Of course, the Roman Telescope won't really open its eyes, so to speak

Until later in the mission when it gets out to that Lagrange 2 point, about a million miles from Earth

Everything that we're seeing, a rocket performing exactly as it's supposed to

TY entry burn startup. NY entry burn startup. And nominal trajectory so far

Very exciting moment for the spacecraft team. That's for sure. TY entry burn shutdown

Yeah, Steve, so we just had the entry burns on those side core boosters

as they're making their way back to Earth right now. Now, as mentioned earlier, we will be attempting to recover both side boosters

which are targeting a landing at landing zone 40 and a landing at landing zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

And you can actually follow the vehicle telemetry of those side boosters

via the telemetry on your screen there. NY FTS is safe. NY Transonic

Now we're just waiting for those landing burns to start up in just about 10 seconds from now

Stage two FTS is safe. NY Landing Burn. N.Y. landing burn

Stage 2 is in terminal guidance P.Y. landing leg deploy N.Y. landing leg deploy

P.Y. landing confirmed N.Y. landing confirmed Thank you And we got a beautiful shot of one of those side core boosters there on your screen

We did, of course, have confirmation of successful landings of both of those side core boosters

and certainly most people in the vicinity heard those sonic booms. Now, coming up next, we are expecting the shutdown of the second-stage MVAC engine

and this is known as second-engine cutoff one or SECO one, and we should be hearing that call out here shortly

and afterwards we'll just be waiting for confirmation of good orbit. Nominal orbit insertion

And there's that callout for nominal orbital insertion after we turn off the MVAC engine on the second stage there

So coming up next, we have a bit of a breather coming up before the next milestone for the mission

SCS-2, when the MVAC engine on the second stage restarts as it continues to its orbital destination

And we have a shot of the Mission Director Center here at KSC on the right

Let's see if we can see. Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, separation confirmed

There we go. Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope flying free on its way to Lagrange 2

and to open a new eye on the universe. Of course, a lot of celebration with the team, Jared

I know you represent a lot of people in NASA's Launch Services Program

and across NASA a lot of work goes into this. I hope you have enjoyed it

We've enjoyed having you. you? Yeah, it's been great. Yeah, wonderful. Spacecraft deploy

Hear all the claps here behind us in the mission control room

I'm sure the same at Goddard. Thanks so much for having me today. And most importantly, congratulations to the whole Roman team on behalf of the Launch Services

Program. It's been great working with everybody, and we really can't wait to see

all the great science that you're going to do out there. It's going to be terrific. Roman

is on its way, and we are going back to Zach at Hawthorne, California

in SpaceX. Thanks, Steve and Jared, and what a spectacular deployment. Of course, a huge thank you from SpaceX to everyone at NASA for the partnership on this

mission and to all the teams on both sides who brought NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space

Telescope to the pad and into space