The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch on Sunday, August 30, at 7:27 a.m. EDT (1127 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Once in space, the telescope will travel to the sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a stable gravitational point about 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, on the side opposite the sun. This mission, which took nearly two decades and $4 billion to develop, aims to explore dark matter and dark energy, discover exoplanets, and capture wide-field images of the universe using visible-to-near-infrared light. Its field of view is 50 times wider than that of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), making it a powerful tool for astronomical research. In April 2025, initial budget proposals suggested the largest funding cut in NASA's history—a 24% overall reduction, with science programs facing a 50% loss. While the proposals supported ongoing missions like Hubble and JWST, they allocated no funding for other telescopes, including the Roman Space Telescope. This news surprised many scientists and engineers, who worried about their job security and the future of their projects. For the Roman team, the possibility of the telescope being canceled just before completion was particularly concerning. Lisa, an engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, called the situation "ridiculous," saying it would be difficult to handle if the mission were canceled. Jamie Dunn, who managed the Roman project from 2018 to 2023, noted that the telescope had been excluded from the president's budget in at least half of the eight years he worked on the project. When the official budget proposal was released, Roman's funding for FY26 was set at $156.6 million—less than half of the FY25 allocation. This led to increased workloads and staff reductions, with two of three skilled technicians in one department leaving, according to Lisa. Despite these challenges, the team worked two shifts daily and weekends to keep the project on track. Congress ultimately rejected the proposed cuts to NASA's budget and restored funding to the previous year's level. To avoid further uncertainty, Roman mission management accelerated the launch schedule, first moving the target to September and then to the end of August to ensure the launch would occur within the fiscal year. NASA announced the completion of the Roman Space Telescope in April, eight months ahead of schedule and under budget. Now, the team faces the final challenge of launch, with concerns about the rocket's performance, which is beyond their control. The telescope will take about 30 days to reach its destination at L2, requiring several trajectory adjustments, including a mid-course "correction 1" maneuver approximately 24 hours after launch.