Falcon 9 Block 4 | TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
Launch Successful
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Launch Window
April 18, 2018, 10:51 p.m. - April 18, 2018, 10:52 p.m.
April 18, 2018, 10:51 p.m. - April 18, 2018, 10:52 p.m.
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.
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 DetailsThe 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.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
Jan. 23, 2026 NASA’s TESS Returns to Science Observations NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) entered safe mode Jan. 15 and returned to normal science operations Jan. 18. The operations team determined the issue arose when…
Trained on data from NASA’s exoplanet-hunting missions, the open-source ExoMiner++ deep learning model uses an advanced algorithm to validate new planets.
Through international collaboration, a team of astronomers has confirmed two exoplanets and found hints of… The post TESS finds three Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting binary stars appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
Scientists have devised a new method for mapping the spottiness of distant stars by using observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets crossing their stars’ faces. The model builds on a technique researchers have used for decades to…
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…
Ride-share launch of 8 satellites to sun-synchronous orbit. Details TBD.
The Yaogan 50-02 is a Chinese military “remote sensing” satellite of unknown purposes.
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A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
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A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Note: Payload and customer identities were not publicly announced. 4th of the BlackSky Gen-3 high resolution Earth-imaging satellites.
