NASA this week unveiled and declared complete the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center, marking a major new survey observatory for astronomy. Built over more than a decade at a cost above $4 billion and named for NASA’s first chief astronomer, Roman features a 2.4-metre primary mirror similar to Hubble’s but a field of view roughly 100 times larger. Its Wide Field Instrument (a 300‑megapixel visible-to-near-infrared camera with a slitless spectrometer) will conduct large-scale surveys to map billions of galaxies, probe dark matter and dark energy, and carry out a Galactic Bulge time-domain survey to find exoplanets via gravitational microlensing. NASA says Roman will generate very large data volumes — hundreds to thousands of terabytes per year — and will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center ahead of a launch as soon as September 2026 (with a launch window extending into 2027) aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Roman is intended to work in concert with JWST, ESA’s Euclid and the Vera Rubin Observatory, enabling broad, complementary science and target selection for follow-up missions.

NASA on April 21–22 unveiled and confirmed completion of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The 2.4‑metre mirror observatory, named for NASA’s first chief astronomer, will survey vast swathes of sky with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s. Its Wide Field Instrument (a 300‑megapixel visible-to-near‑infrared imager and slitless spectrometer) and a technology demonstration coronagraph aim to map dark matter and dark energy, discover tens of thousands of exoplanets via gravitational microlensing, and catch transient events. NASA says Roman was finished ahead of schedule and under budget and will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy as early as September 2026 (with later contingency windows). The mission is expected to return more data in its first year than Hubble has over decades, enabling wide-area surveys that will drive target selection for JWST, Euclid and ground observatories such as the Vera Rubin Observatory.

A federal judge on April 21 issued a preliminary injunction blocking a suite of Trump administration permitting policies that renewable energy groups say have stymied new wind and solar projects across the United States. Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper found the Interior Department and other agencies likely acted unlawfully by adopting measures — including a memorandum requiring elevated three‑appointee signoffs for nearly every step of wind and solar permitting, stricter interpretations of offshore authorities, a sector‑wide permit freeze and rules disadvantaging “capacity dense” projects — that prompted developers to cancel or delay projects. The injunction, sought by nine regional industry associations including RENEW Northeast, Alliance for Clean Energy New York, the Southern Renewable Energy Association and Interwest, applies to members of those groups while litigation proceeds. The Interior Department declined to comment on the case. The ruling follows several recent judicial setbacks to the administration’s attempts to curb offshore wind and comes as the White House has pushed fossil fuel production and used measures such as the Defense Production Act to support oil, coal and gas.

The annual Lyrid meteor shower reached its peak on the night of April 21-22, 2026 as Earth passed through debris from Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). The shower, active roughly April 16–25, typically produces about 10–30 meteors per hour under dark skies, with common estimates this year of roughly 15–20 per hour and the potential for brief surges to 100 meteors an hour. The radiant lies in the constellation Lyra near the bright star Vega; observers are advised to watch after local evening twilight into the pre-dawn hours when rates are highest. A waxing crescent moon this year reduced skyglow, improving visibility for many regions in the Northern Hemisphere. NASA and ground-based photographers, including images from the International Space Station, captured bright Lyrid streaks and occasional fireballs. Practical tips: find a dark site away from city lights, allow 20–30 minutes for night-vision adaptation, lie back to cover a wide field of sky, and expect the best views between about 10 p.m. local time and dawn. The next notable shower, the Eta Aquariids, peaks in early May.

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory report that fungal spores recovered from spacecraft assembly cleanrooms can survive a suite of simulated space and Martian conditions, raising fresh concerns about forward contamination. In experiments reported in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (April 2026), scientists collected 27 fungal strains from facilities used in the Mars 2020 program and exposed their asexual spores (conidia) to intense ultraviolet radiation, months-long ionizing radiation doses, low pressure, Mars-like regolith, and extreme cold. Most strains survived UV exposure; one species, Aspergillus calidoustus, withstood UV, prolonged ionizing radiation and low-pressure, low-temperature conditions that mimic a mission to Mars. Only prolonged exposure to a combination of very high radiation and extreme cold reliably killed it. The team, led by Kasthuri Venkateswaran of JPL, says the findings do not prove Mars contamination will occur but highlight fungi as an underappreciated gap in planetary protection protocols. The results also note potential human-health implications for astronaut safety and call for updated sterilisation and monitoring standards for future robotic and crewed missions.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected the most diverse suite of organic molecules yet identified on Mars, researchers reported April 21 in Nature Communications. A rock nicknamed “Mary Anning 3,” drilled in 2020 from clay‑rich sandstones in Glen Torridon on Mount Sharp (Gale Crater), yielded 21 carbon‑containing molecules; seven had not previously been seen on Mars. Among the novel detections are a nitrogen heterocycle — a ringed molecule considered a chemical precursor to RNA/DNA — and benzothiophene, a sulfur‑bearing compound found in meteorites. The results come from the first off‑Earth use of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, a “wet chemistry” test that breaks macromolecular carbon into analyzable fragments. Team lead Amy Williams and colleagues verified aspects of the technique using a Murchison meteorite sample. Scientists emphasise the findings do not prove past life: the organics could be native abiotic products or delivered by meteorites. The discovery shows complex organics can survive ~3.5 billion years in Martian clays and will inform future missions and sample‑return priorities.