NASA's next-gen Roman Space Telescope is fully built. Could it launch earlier than expected?

Three large solar panels hang in the back of a cleanroom warehouse room where two workers dressed in white suits stand in the foreground.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now fully assembled and ready to begin launch preparations this summer.

The final integration of the telescope's major observatory components took place on Nov. 25 inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where engineers brought together the spacecraft and telescope assemblies in the facility's largest clean room, according to a statement from NASA.