TESS
NASA's all-sky planet hunter.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA Explorer-program space telescope that searches for exoplanets by the transit method over an area 400 times larger than Kepler's. It launched on 18 April 2018 on a Falcon 9 into a 13.7-day orbit around Earth.
Its two-year primary mission surveyed the brightest nearby stars and ended around July 2020; extended missions continue. It has found thousands of candidate planets, hundreds of them confirmed.
Quick Facts
- Mission type
- Space observatory
- Spacecraft
- Explorer XCV
- Spacecraft type
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
- Spacecraft bus
- LEOStar-2/750
- Manufacturer
- Orbital ATK
- Launch mass
- 362 kg / 798 lb
- Dimensions
- 3.7 × 1.2 xx
- Power
- 530 watts
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