Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) with technicians preparing it in a clean room. This satellite is NASA's next step in the search for planets outside the solar system, also known as exoplanets. TESS launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on 18 April 2018, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA. It was placed in a highly elliptical lunar resonant orbit (P/2) to carry out its all-sky survey. Image released in November 2017.