Once on station, TESS's four 16.8-megapixel cameras, each equipped with four state-of-the-art CCD detectors, will spend at least two years monitoring starlight across the southern and then northern skies, on the lookout for the tell-tale dimming that occurs when a planet moves in front of its host star - a transit - as viewed from the spacecraft. Another second stage firing 35 minutes later finished the job and TESS was released into its planned initial orbit. The Falcon 9's second stage completed the first of two planned 'burns' a little more than eight minutes after launch, about 20 seconds after the first stage completed its landing. Photo from a camera on the Falcon 9 rocket looking down to the droneship after touchdown on Wed., April 18, 2018. The company's landing record now stands at 24 successful booster recoveries, 12 on land and 12 on the deck of a ship. The launching marked SpaceX's eighth so far this year and the 53rd of a Falcon 9 overall. The launching came two days late to carry out additional guidance, navigation and control analysis.Īfter boosting the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage fell away and flew back to a landing on the deck of an off-shore drone ship. EDT (GMT-4), climbing away to the east through a cloudless sky. The Falcon 9, with TESS nestled in a protective nose cone, blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:51 p.m. 'Missions like TESS will help us keep learning so that eventually we can answer the question, are we alone? Or do we just have the best prime real estate in the galaxy?' A look at the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Wed., April 18, 2018.

Spacex launches nasa planet-hunting s