I distinctly remember the feeling I had when I first saw the Hubble Deep Field image. A sensation of scope, of scale, of incomprehensible hugeness and complexity that I’ve never really found anywhere besides astronomy and science fiction. There’s just… so much out there that it’s literally incomprehensible. I love it.

I can’t wait to see the data from Roman. I hope it’s as much of a game-changer as it seems to be. The last time I anticipated a launch this much was Webb, which feels weird to say with the Artemis missions going on, but I just can’t muster the same enthusiasm for moon missions that I feel for deep space. They also feel more like American business-as-usual imperialism, and if America is going to try for a moon base I really hope we can get our own house in order before we start creating new corporatist hellscapes for humans to suffer in. I don’t know if anyone can be trusted to found a colony on the moon, or Mars, but I sure as hell don’t trust us.

I feel much less conflicted about the telescope missions. I like that we just build instruments to take pictures of the universe and share them with everybody. And Roman, by all accounts, will be creating an unprecedented bonanza of space data. I’m jazzed for it.

EDIT: Roman is currently scheduled to launch at Aug 30, 2026 11:26 UTC, or six hours after this post was created. NASA Source

EDIT 2: launch went smoothly; Roman is en route to L2 🥳