A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Florida in August, marking another major milestone for the state's space industry. The launch will take place from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, adding to Florida's already record-breaking pace of rocket launches in 2026. So far this year, 49 rockets have launched from Florida, including NASA's Artemis II lunar mission earlier this year. The Space Coast set a record with 109 orbital rocket launches in 2025, a number that still stands as the highest annual total.
The upcoming mission will carry NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a $10 billion observatory designed to study dark energy and exoplanets. The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first female chief of the Office of Space Science. The launch is expected to occur later in August, though no exact date has been announced. SpaceX has a history of successfully launching heavy payloads, including previous missions for NASA and private companies.
Florida's launch activity slowed in the summer months, with only six launches each in May, June and July. This followed a setback for Blue Origin when its New Glenn rocket exploded during a hot-fire test at Launch Complex 36 in May. The incident knocked Blue Origin's launches off the Eastern Range manifest for the foreseeable future. Despite this, SpaceX continues to dominate the launch schedule, with its Falcon 9 rockets frequently used for Starlink and AST SpaceMobile missions.
The Space Coast's 2026 launch total of 49 rockets is already more than double the 31 launches that occurred in all of 2021. However, the pace this year has not matched the record-breaking 2025 numbers. Still, with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch and other planned missions, Florida is expected to remain a key player in the global space industry. The state's two major spaceports — Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center — continue to handle the majority of U.S. space launches.