NASA s new planet-hunting mission begins

Washington April 19 (IANS) The US space agency NASA s next planet-hunting spacecraft has lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida successfully.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) started its journey into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 6.51 p.m. on Wednesday Xinhua news agency reported.

Its scheduled launch on Monday was postponed over bad weather.

The first stage of the reusable Falcon 9 has landed on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship and the second-stage engine has been cut off making the satellite in coast phase NASA said.

Tess will be deployed into a highly elliptical orbit.

It is the second spacecraft after Kepler Space Telescope which was launched in 2009 in the search for planets outside our solar system including those that could support life.

It will survey the entire sky over the course of two years.

--IANS
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