HAWTHORNE (CNS) - Hawthorne-based aerospace company SpaceX will make another attempt today to launch a cosmos-exploring satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral.
The launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had been planned for Monday but was postponed to today.
The launch is set for 3:51 p.m. California time, with deployment of the satellite expected 48 minutes later. If successful, the launch will be the eighth of the year for SpaceX, which most recently launched a resupply mission to the International Space Station on April 2.
Continuing its efforts to cut the cost of space missions by recovering rockets, SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge -- named ``Of Course I Still Love You'' -- in the Atlantic Ocean.
The TESS mission, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, is designed to find potential planets orbiting stars close to Earth. It will attempt to identify such planets by spotting dips in the brightness of stars, a sign that a planet is passing in front of it.
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