NASA reports progress in Roman telescope instrument testing

NASA's Roman Space Telescope team announced on 14 October 2026 that it had completed a series of checks and adjustments to the Wide Field Instrument, the main instrument for the observatory's surveys.

Work included testing detectors, electronics, the element wheel and calibration system after powering up the instrument in September. The team also refined optical focus and checked how components performed together.

NASA reported an optical error after correction of about 63 nanometres root mean square, compared with a requirement of roughly 90 nanometres. These are engineering performance measurements. They do not represent a new astronomical discovery or final scientific results from the telescope's planned surveys.