SpaceX is set to launch today a Falcon 9 carrying a planet-hunting space telescope for NASA.
The mission is scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:51 p.m. SpaceX will also attempt a landing of the rocket’s first stage on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.
The Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to orbit for two years searching for planets beyond our solar system that might contain life. TESS’s photometric survey telescope with four wide-field cameras will search for tell-tale dips in the brightness of stars that indicate an orbiting planet regularly transiting across the face of its star. The satellite is expected to catalog thousands of exoplanet candidates around a wide range of star types, including hundreds of planets that are less than twice the size of Earth. The TESS mission is expected to find planets ranging from small, rocky worlds to gas giants.
You can watch the livestream of the mission below.