NASA has opened media accreditation for the upcoming launches of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, both scheduled for later this year from Florida’s Space Coast.
NASA has invited media organisations to apply for accreditation ahead of two major upcoming launches: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the agency’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. The Roman telescope is targeting liftoff no earlier than 7:20 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-13, meanwhile, is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-September from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying four astronauts to the space station for a science and research expedition.
About the Roman Space Telescope
Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the Roman telescope is designed to give scientists a deep, panoramic view of the cosmos, capturing images that NASA says will transform current understanding of the universe. The observatory will investigate dark energy, dark matter and thousands of exoplanets, using a field of view around 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope while maintaining comparable image quality.
One of the mission’s primary goals is to help researchers understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating, a phenomenon attributed to dark energy. Roman will also carry out a microlensing survey expected to uncover thousands of planets beyond our solar system, including free-floating planets that do not orbit a star. Once launched, the telescope will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, roughly 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth, where it will operate alongside other space observatories.
About the Crew-13 mission
Crew-13 will mark NASA’s 13th commercial crew rotation mission using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. The mission will carry NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the International Space Station, where the crew will spend approximately six months conducting scientific research, technology demonstrations and maintenance work as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Watkins previously became the first Black woman to complete a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station, during the Crew-4 mission in 2022. For Kutryk, Delaney and Teteryatnikov, the upcoming mission will mark their first spaceflights.
How to apply for accreditation
Media organisations wishing to cover either launch must apply within specific deadlines set by NASA. International media without U.S. citizenship must submit applications by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 26. U.S. media, along with U.S. citizens representing international media organisations, have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, July 30 to apply.
