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TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

    Looking Ahead at Countdown, Ascent

    The payload fairing atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket contains NASA's TESS spacecraft. The rocket is poised for liftoff at Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

    Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's TESS spacecraft remains scheduled for 6:51 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Follow the countdown here and on www.nasa.gov/live starting at 6:30 p.m. TESS is sealed inside the protective payload fairing atop its ride into space: the two-stage …

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    Viewing Options for TESS Launch

    The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set to launch NASA's TESS spacecraft stands at Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

    Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's TESS spacecraft remains scheduled for 6:51 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. If you're in the Space Coast area – that's the east coast of central Florida, about 45 minutes from Orlando – and you're interested in seeing …

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    NASA, SpaceX Targeting Launch Today

    Artist concept of TESS in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star.

    NASA and SpaceX are targeting the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for no earlier than 6:51 p.m. EDT. Frequent updates from the countdown will begin here at 6:30 p.m. You can also watch at http://www.nasa.gov/live. TESS …

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    TESS Launch Now Targeted for Wednesday

    Launch teams are standing down today to conduct additional Guidance Navigation and Control analysis, and teams are now working towards a targeted launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on Wednesday, April 18. The TESS spacecraft is in excellent health, and remains ready for launch. TESS will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from …

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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.

    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 …

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    TESS Builds on Success of the ‘Transit Method’ of Planet Detection

    Artist concept of TESS in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star.

    As the first space-based, all-sky surveyor in search of exoplanets, TESS is poised to provide tantalizing new clues in the search for planets outside our solar system that could harbor life. Like the successful Kepler mission before it, TESS will watch for signs of planets passing in front of the stars they orbit. When a …

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    Launch Day Arrives for NASA’s TESS Satellite

    NASA's newest planet-hunter, TESS, will look around the brightest stars closest to our solar system for new worlds.

    In just a few hours, a NASA spacecraft is expected to launch on a mission to search the skies for the nearest terrestrial planets outside our solar system. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:32 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 …

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    TESS Televised Events Today and Monday

    Artist concept of TESS in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star.

    The planned liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, remains scheduled for 6:32 p.m. EDT Monday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing continue to predict an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for …

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    Launch Weather 80 Percent ‘Go’ for Monday

    Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing continue to predict an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Launch is scheduled for April 16 at 6:32 p.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Space Launch Complex 40 …

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    TESS Briefings and Events Scheduled for Sunday, April 15

    Artist concept of TESS in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star.

    NASA's TESS satellite is scheduled to launch Monday, April 16, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, on an ambitious mission to search for planets outside our solar system. Tune in Sunday for a series of briefings and events broadcast live on NASA TV. Catch the NASA Social Mission Overview at 11 a.m., a prelaunch news …

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