The world will be watching tonight as SpaceX launches NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) into orbit. Set to take off on a two-year mission at 6:32 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Wired reports that the Falcon 9 used for this flight has a band new stage booster, and it’s already successfully test-fired it. TESS, about the size of a refrigerator, will spend its time searching for new planets. Wired reports that its predecessor, the Kepler Space Telescope, identified thousands of potential planets outside of our solar system — 2,600 of which have been verified by scientists here on Earth.
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