On August 30, 2026, the HLIS PIT celebrated along with NASA, STScI, the four other PITs, and the globe as we watched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Invited guests, including many PIT members, were seated in the bleachers at Banana Creek launch viewing site at Kennedy Space Center starting at 3:30 AM. The group of 2500 scientists, engineers, designers, and more, waited for hours in the dark, listening to updates from mission control as they streamed live to the site. As the sun rose, the anticipation grew, and the crowd’s faith in a launch that morning strengthened. Finally, at 7:26 AM, the spacecraft lifted off and we watched as the telescope soared above the Earth and disappeared from our sight, beginning its journey to L2 where it will carry out the primary five year mission. 

 

   

Left: Roman launches into the sky. Center: The crowd at Banana Creek viewing site. Right: Dramatic plumes of smoke after the launch.

 

One PIT member in attendance wrote, “It was incredibly emotional, since everyone there had a vested interest in the launch succeeding. When the rocket eventually lifted from the launch pad, there was a mixture of joy, relief, amazement, and awe throughout the crowd.”  Besides the emotional excitement, many also remarked on the magnitude of witnessing the launch itself; “Perhaps the coolest moment was when the booster rockets returned and landed on a different pad, a little closer to us than the takeoff pad. They came in at a steep angle and then executed a flawless turn upward to land upright. Immediately after that, there was a loud BA-BAM, which was the sonic boom from their approach. The whole crowd gasped and then laughed, since we mostly had forgotten to expect it, despite being warned.”

Beyond the group at the official viewing site, many other PIT members, interested scientists, community members, and even international travelers gathered at various public sites to view the launch as well. The sense of community in the crowd was strong-- scientists and community members shared discussions about space, technology, and the excitement of an endeavor such as Roman. In these groups, too, the launch of the rocket and the boosters’ return was met with applause, cheering, and even a few tears.

 

Left: HLIS PIT PhD students Megan Zhao (Penn), Junzhou Zhang (UChicago), Yijie Zhu (Stony Brook) after the launch. Right: PIT members from Duke University at the launch.

 

The thrill of the launch was the highlight of the trip, but of course it wouldn’t be a PIT gathering without a bit of science. The Roman project organized a one day science meeting on August 27th before the launch day, which many PIT members attended. Scientists from the project and the five PITs presented on a wide breadth of science topics, including the Roman exoplanet microlensing survey, the anticipated cosmology results, and the (many tedious) engineering steps for launching a telescope. The following day, the HLIS PIT’s Cosmological Parameter Inference Pipeline working group held their own small hack session as well. They divided their time between working hard on getting the pipeline ready for science, and admiring the manatees in the Florida scenery around them.

 

CPIP students working hard at their hack session. 

 

For such a momentous occasion, we of course had to celebrate aptly as well! The PIT joined a pre-launch party on the beach organized by the Roman Project as a moment to get together and celebrate all our work to prepare for the launch of the telescope. The universal anticipation and excitement were a meaningful shared experience amongst collaborators. After the launch, the Roman Project hosted a large post-launch picnic, which was a wonderful occasion to get to know NASA engineers, astronomers from other PITs, and other people deeply involved in Roman whom we don't ordinarily get to interact with. And needless to say, the exhilarating post launch feeling, which we collectively shared at the picnic, is hard to capture in words - it was a day we will remember for years to come!

 

Left: PIT members at the pre-launch beach party. Right: Pre-launch party drink menu!