Nasa’s next planet-hunting mission has launched from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) took to the skies at 23.51 BST (18.51 EDT). It was deployed into Earth orbit 49 minutes later, to start a series of manoeuvres that will get it into its operational orbit by mid-June.
These manoeuvres include a close flyby of the moon to help place Tess on a highly elliptical path that swings from 108,000 kilometres to 373,000 kilometres above Earth. The spacecraft will spend at least two years observing more than 200,000 nearby stars and looking for planets. It is expected to discover thousands of previously unknown worlds, some of them potentially habitable, by detecting the small drops in light that occur when each planet passes across the face of its parent star.
The launch was originally scheduled for Monday 16 April but delayed because of a potential issue with the rocket’s guidance system. In the event, the launch went without a hitch and Tess lifted off on a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Tess is comparatively cheap with a price tag of $200m (£140m) plus an additional $87m for launch.
