Did NASA activate the Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument in September 2026?

Yes. On September 15, 2026, NASA announced that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team successfully activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera designed for wide, sharp cosmic surveys.

Commissioning also included initial out-of-focus starlight test images used as a baseline to align the optics, plus early checkouts of the Coronagraph Instrument. NASA said the instrument is working as expected, with the first science images expected by early 2027.

Source: NASA Science — Roman WFI activation

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