Given the hype surrounding its scheduled launch on 24 December, you’d be forgiven for thinking the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the only major astronomy facility due to come online in the 2020s. In fact, it is one of three: the Vera C Rubin Observatory will see first light in Chile in 2022, while the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is currently scheduled to launch in 2027. Both facilities will be leaders in all-sky survey work, where the emphasis is on observing as many objects as possible across a wide swathe of sky. Such surveys are vital for collecting data on large numbers of objects; among other projects, they provide the statistics behind efforts to measure the strength of dark energy.
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