On 2 March 2020, NASA announced that it had approved WFIRST to proceed to implementation, with an expected development cost of US$3.2 billion and a maximum total cost of US$3.934 billion, including the coronagraph and five years of mission science operations. On 20 May 2020, NASA Administrator
Jim Bridenstine announced that the mission would be named the
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in recognition of the former NASA Chief of Astronomy's role in the field of
astronomy. On 31 March 2021, the
NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report that stated that the development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope had been affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the US during a particularly important time in the telescope's development. NASA is expecting a total impact of US$400 million due to the pandemic and its effect on subcontractors for the project. On 29 September 2021, NASA announced that Roman had passed its
Critical Design Review (CDR), and that with predicted impacts from
COVID-19 disruptions, and with flight hardware fabrication completed by 2024 followed by mission integration, the launch date would be no later than May 2027. On 19 July 2022, NASA announced that Roman would be launched on a
Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, with a contract specifying readiness by October 2026 and a launch cost of approximately $255 million. In September 2024, the
satellite bus which will carry the telescope, was substantially completed. The following December, the instruments and mirror assembly were successfully integrated onto a section called the "instrument carrier". In October 2024, the telescope passed a major ‘spin test’. The space telescope had finished construction on 25 November 2025.
Funding history and status ,
NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, is shown at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in approximately 1972. In the fiscal year 2014, Congress provided US$56 million for Roman, and in 2015 Congress provided US$50 million. The fiscal year 2016 spending bill provided US$90 million for Roman, far above NASA's request of US$14 million, allowing the mission to enter the "formulation phase" in February 2016. On 18 February 2016, NASA announced that Roman had formally become a project (as opposed to a study), meaning that the agency intends to carry out the mission as baselined; at that time, the "AFTA" portion of the name was dropped, as only that approach is being pursued. Roman is on a plan for a mid-2020s launch. The total cost of Roman at that point was expected at more than US$2 billion; NASA's 2015 budget estimate was around US$2.0 billion in 2010 dollars, which corresponds to around US$2.7 billion in real year (inflation-adjusted) dollars. In April 2017, NASA commissioned an independent review of the project to ensure that the mission scope and cost were understood and aligned. The review acknowledged that Roman offers "groundbreaking and unprecedented survey capabilities for
dark energy,
exoplanet, and
general astrophysics", but directed the mission to "reduce cost and complexity sufficient to have a cost estimate consistent with the US$3.2 billion cost target set at the beginning of Phase B". NASA announced (January 2018) the reductions taken in response to this recommendation, and that Roman would proceed to its mission design review in February 2018 and begin Phase B by April 2018. NASA confirmed (March 2018) that the changes made to the project had reduced its estimated life cycle cost to US$3.2 billion and that the Phase B decision was on track to begin on 11 April 2018. In February 2018, the
Trump administration proposed an FY2019 budget that would have delayed the funding of the Roman (then called WFIRST), citing higher priorities within NASA and the increasing cost of the telescope. The proposed defunding of the project was met with criticism by professional astronomers, who noted that the American astronomical community had rated Roman the highest-priority space mission for the 2020s in the
2010 Decadal Survey. The
American Astronomical Society expressed "grave concern" about the proposed defunding, and noted that the estimated lifecycle cost for Roman had not changed over the previous two years. In agreement, the
United States Congress approved an FY2018 Roman budget on 22 and 23 March 2018 in excess of the administration's budget request for that year, stating that it "rejects the cancellation of scientific priorities recommended by the National Academy of Sciences decadal survey process", and directed NASA to develop new estimates of Roman's total and annual development costs. The President of the United States announced he had signed the bill on 23 March 2018. NASA was funded via a FY2019 appropriations bill on 15 February 2019, with US$312 million for Roman, rejecting the President's reduced Budget Request and reasserting the desire for completion of Roman with a planning budget of US$3.2 billion. In March 2019 the Trump administration again proposed to defund the Roman in its FY2020 budget proposal to Congress. In testimony on 27 March 2019, NASA Administrator
Jim Bridenstine hinted that NASA would continue Roman after the
James Webb Space Telescope, stating "WFIRST will be a critical mission when James Webb is on orbit". In a 26 March 2019, presentation to the
National Academies' Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, NASA Astrophysics Division Director
Paul L. Hertz stated that Roman "is maintaining its US$3.2 billion cost for now ... We need US$542 million in FY2020 to stay on track". At that time, it was stated that Roman would hold its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the overall mission in October 2019 followed by a formal mission confirmation in early 2020. NASA announced the completion of the
Preliminary Design Review (PDR) on 1 November 2019, but warned that though the mission remained on track for a 2025 launch date, shortfalls in the Senate's FY2020 budget proposal for Roman threatened to delay it further. In April 2025, the
second Trump administration proposed to cut funding for Roman again as part of its FY2026 budget draft. This was part of wider proposed cuts to NASA's science budget, down to US$3.9 billion from its FY2025 budget of US$7.5 billion. On April 25, 2025, the White House Office of Management and Budget announced a plan to cancel dozens of space missions, including the Roman Space Telescope, as part of the cuts. These cuts are still being debated in the
United States Congress. == Institutions, partnerships, and contracts ==