Launch of Falcon 9 to Search for Habitable Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched on Wednesday from Florida, in the first high-priority scientific mission conducted by SpaceX for NASA, involving an orbital telescope that will search for habitable worlds beyond our Solar System. The TESS satellite took off after a two-day delay due to a technical failure in the rocket’s control system.

A few minutes after launch, the main propulsion section of the rocket separated from the upper part and returned to Earth, landing on the platform of an unmanned ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, NASA’s latest satellite continued its journey into orbit, beginning a $337 million mission to search for so-called exoplanets.

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The launch marks a milestone for Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or SpaceX, a private rocket launch service owned by billionaire Elon Musk. The California-based company has already launched various types of cargo for NASA, and TESS is the first mission after SpaceX received NASA certification for launching high-priority scientific instruments.

TESS is expected to continue what its predecessor, the Kepler space telescope, started, having discovered about 3,700 exoplanets in the last twenty years and running low on fuel. NASA expects to discover thousands of previously unknown worlds, hundreds of which are Earth-sized or larger.

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They are believed to have surfaces covered with rocks or oceans, making them favorable candidates for the development of life. Scientists hope that thanks to TESS, they will be able to catalog at least a hundred exoplanets that have become the main subject of astronomical research.