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TESS Mission

SpaceX is targeting launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on Wednesday, April 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canave...

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: High Earth Orbit
Mission: Astrophysics

High Earth Orbit Space Launch Complex 40 Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA Probability: 90% #TESS
B1045 - Of Course I Still Love You

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA space telescope, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method. TESS will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood, so that detailed characterizations of the planets and their atmospheres can be performed.

Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 4

The Full Thrust variants first stage includes all systems necessary for an operational re-use of stages while the second stage is operated as an expendable rocket stage.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    71.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    546.0 T
  • Thrust
    6804.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 4
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 4
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $50000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8305.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1045

Status: Expended


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No
First Flight: April 18, 2018
Last Flight: June 29, 2018
Flights: 2
Landings Attempted: 1
Landings Successful: 1

Landing Information

The first stage of the Falcon 9 landed on the ASDS, OCISLY, stationed of the east coast.

Result: Successful Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship landing at Of Course I Still Love You.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 533 Failures: 15 Pending: 120

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

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Clingy planets can trigger own doom, suspect Cheops and TESS

Astronomers using the European Space Agency’s Cheops mission have caught an exoplanet that seems to be triggering flares of radiation from the star it orbits. These tremendous explosions are blasting away the planet’s wispy atmosphere, cau…

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NASA’s TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets

Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic “strobe lights” captured by NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).  The syst…

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Using data from Spitzer and TESS, scientists discover exoplanet littered with volcanoes

Using data collected by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a team of scientists has discovered an exoplanet that could potentially be covered with volcanoes. The exoplanet is Ear…

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TESS returns from safe mode, the case of the missing exoplanet atmosphere

Following an incident that triggered the telescope to enter safe mode, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has resumed normal science operations in its highly elliptical Earth orbit. TESS entered safe mode on Monday, Oct. 1…

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TESS considering companion smallsat mission

The leaders of a NASA exoplanet mission are considering using a spare camera for a companion mission that would enable them to confirm existing discoveries and make new ones.

Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

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