SpaceX Launches Planet-Hunting Satellite Into Orbit

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – Aerospace company SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, successfully launched a cosmos-exploring satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral Wendesday. The launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had been planned for Monday but was postponed to Wednesday.

The launch was set for 3:51 p.m. California time, with deployment of the satellite expected 48 minutes later. The launch was the eighth of the year for SpaceX, which most recently launched a resupply mission to the International Space Station on April 2.

Continuing its efforts to cut the cost of space missions by recovering rockets, SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge – named "Of Course I Still Love You" – in the Atlantic Ocean.

The TESS mission, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, is designed to find potential planets orbiting stars close to Earth. It will attempt to identify such planets by spotting dips in the brightness of stars, a sign that a planet is passing in front of it.

City News Service; Photo: The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world and is carrying a Tesla Roadster into orbit. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)