NASA’s search for Earth-like planets around other stars took one major step forward Wednesday night when the agency’s TESS exoplanet hunter received a smooth ride into a high-energy transfer orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9
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The Orbital ATK-built TESS spacecraft looks somewhat lonely inside the large SpaceX payload fairing it will ride up in on
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NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) undergoes final pre-launch processing tasks at the Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility including final functional checks, deployment testing and propellant loading before attachment to the launch adapter and shipment to SpaceX’s facilities for integration with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
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Engineers at Orbital ATK’s facilities integrate the four Wide Field Cameras of the TESS spacecraft onto their structural plate that precisely aligns their individual fields of view to create the spacecraft’s wide-field viewing sector.
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The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and its staring instrument undergo assembly at the various facilities involved in the mission, including MIT Lincoln Lab and Orbital ATK where the four wide-field cameras and the satellite platform were integrated, respectively.
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