The authors compute the long-time asymptotics for solutions of the NLS equation just under the assumption that the initial data lies in a weighted Sobolev space. In earlier work (see e.g. [DZ1],[DIZ]) high orders of decay and smoothness are required for the initial data. The method here is a further development of the steepest descent method of [DZ1], and replaces certain absolute type estimates in [DZ1] with cancellation from oscillations.