ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Science Center visitors will get a firsthand account of NASA’s newest space telescope next month, when one of the engineers who built it speaks at the downtown Orlando museum on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The speaker, J. Scott Smith, oversees the Roman observatory’s optical assembly and takes the stage of the museum’s VyStar Adventure Theater at 4 p.m. His talk closes out the museum’s monthly CoLAB Day, short for Community Learning and Beyond, an all-day program that opens at 10 a.m. and pairs visitors with local science, technology, engineering and math partners.
A NASA Goddard Space Flight Center veteran of more than 22 years, Smith has been in charge of the Roman telescope’s optics since 2016. His visit comes about two months after the observatory lifted off Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from pad 39A on Florida’s Space Coast.
The telescope carries the name of NASA’s first chief astronomer, a scientist remembered as the mother of Hubble. NASA says Roman’s view of the sky is at least 100 times wider than Hubble’s, letting it gather light from as many as a billion galaxies over its working life. It is also built to blot out the glare of stars so scientists can directly image planets and the dusty disks where planets form, and to help answer questions about dark energy.
The spacecraft has moved into its final commissioning phase, and NASA expects to release its first public images in early 2027.
The talk and all CoLAB Day activities are included with regular museum admission, which also covers the center’s four floors of exhibits.
Section: More Orlando FL education news
Filed under: Orlando FL Education News
