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TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

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TESS’s Ride to Orbit: the SpaceX Falcon 9

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians assist as the SpaceX payload fairing containing the agency's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is moved by crane to a transporter.
Technicians assist as the SpaceX payload fairing containing the agency’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is moved by crane to a transporter April 11, 2018, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

The launch vehicle poised to give TESS its boost into space later today is the SpaceX Falcon 9, a two-stage rocket with nine Merlin engines powering the first stage and a single Merlin engine powering the second. Both stages run on a combination of liquid oxygen and RP-1, a refined kerosene. Propellant loading operations begin later this afternoon.

Topping the Falcon 9 is a composite payload fairing that will protect the TESS spacecraft during the first three minutes of flight.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 carrying NASA’s TESS satellite remains scheduled for 6:32 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

For more information on the Falcon 9, visit http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.