Apr 4, 2018 05:13 AM
Scheduled to launch on April 16, lofted into a distant orbit (with a 13 day orbital period) by a SpaceX Falcon 9. TESS stands for 'Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite'. The orbit that it's shooting for will allow it to last for decades without falling prey to Tiangong's fiery fate.
The distant orbit suggests that it will require all of the booster's fuel to attain, so I guessing that SpaceX won't attempt to recover the booster. I gather that SpaceX is using up all of their "legacy" Falcon 9's currently in stock, many of them already used ('flight proven'), in anticipation of introducing the new block 5 Falcon 9's later this year. The block 5's reportedly have a number of improvements and upgrades designed to enhance their reusabiity.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/03/n...orlds.html
The new TESS satellite is intended to replace the old Kepler exoplanet hunter, which is currently 'running on fumes'.
TESS is supposed to be able to survey 85% of the sky for exoplanets, monitoring thousands of stars for signs of periodic transits. Part of its job is to locate suitable candidates for further investigation by the new and improved James Webb Space Telescope due to replace the Hubble in 2020. But its ability to survey most of the sky should allow astronomers to get a better sample of what kind of exoplanets are out there and where they are located, allowing humans to create a more complete catalog of planets around other stars.
The distant orbit suggests that it will require all of the booster's fuel to attain, so I guessing that SpaceX won't attempt to recover the booster. I gather that SpaceX is using up all of their "legacy" Falcon 9's currently in stock, many of them already used ('flight proven'), in anticipation of introducing the new block 5 Falcon 9's later this year. The block 5's reportedly have a number of improvements and upgrades designed to enhance their reusabiity.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/03/n...orlds.html
The new TESS satellite is intended to replace the old Kepler exoplanet hunter, which is currently 'running on fumes'.
TESS is supposed to be able to survey 85% of the sky for exoplanets, monitoring thousands of stars for signs of periodic transits. Part of its job is to locate suitable candidates for further investigation by the new and improved James Webb Space Telescope due to replace the Hubble in 2020. But its ability to survey most of the sky should allow astronomers to get a better sample of what kind of exoplanets are out there and where they are located, allowing humans to create a more complete catalog of planets around other stars.