REPLAY: NASA launches its next planet-hunting mission
Wherever you are in the world, don’t miss the blast off of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) by tuning into our livestream
Please note: The launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has been moved to 18 April at approximately 18:51pm EDT/ (23:51 BST)
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is the American space agency’s next step in the hunt for worlds beyond our Solar System, in particular those that could support life. It’s expected that TESS will catalogue thousands of planet candidates, vastly increasing the current number of known exoplanets, identifying new targets for more comprehensive follow-up studies.
TESS is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Monday 16 April at approximately 6:32pm (EDT)/ 23:32pm (BST), with the entire event being streamed above. Before that, you can enjoy prelaunch coverage to be aired on 15 April. The schedule is as follows:
Sunday 15 April
NASA Social Mission Overview – 11am (EDT)/4pm (BST)
* Martin Still, TESS program scientist at NASA Headquarters
* Tom Barclay, TESS scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
* Jenn Burt, Torres postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
* Zach Berta-Thompson, assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder
* Natalia Guerrero, TESS researcher at MIT
* Robert Lockwood, TESS spacecraft program manager with Orbital ATK
* Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX
* Jesse Christiansen, staff scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech
* Elisa Quintana, TESS scientist at Goddard
Prelaunch news conference – 1pm (EDT)/6pm (BST)
* Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator of programs for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
* Omar Baez, launch director for NASA’s Launch Services Program
* Jeff Volosin, TESS project manager at Goddard
* Mike McAleenan, weather officer with the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron
* Robert Lockwood
* Hans Koenigsmann
Science news conference – 3pm (EDT)/ 8pm (BST)
* Paul Hertz, Astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters
* George Ricker, TESS principal investigator at MIT
* Padi Boyd, TESS Guest Investigator Program lead at Goddard
* Stephen Rinehart, TESS project scientist at Goddard
* Diana Dragomir, postdoctoral fellow at MIT
Monday 16 April
NASA EDGE: TESS – 10am (EDT)/ 3pm (BST)
This half-hour live show will discuss the TESS spacecraft, the science of searching for planets outside our Solar System, and the launch from Cape Canaveral.
Launch coverage begins – 6pm (EDT)/ 11pm (BST)
Launch – 6:32pm
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