NASA's New Planet Hunter is on track to launch scientific work this month

Tess (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), launched into Earth orbit on April 18 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is still undergoing commissioning tests, NASA officials said. "The TESS team reported that the spacecraft and the cameras are in good health, and that the spacecraft has reached its final scientific orbit, "NASA officials wrote on Wednesday, July 11.)" The team continues to conduct tests to to optimize the performance of spacecraft, with the aim of starting science by the end of July. "

This start date would be a delay of about six weeks; According to NASA officials, the scientific operations should begin in mid-June.

The work of TESS will consist of examining several hundred thousand stars in the vicinity of the sun, looking for tiny decays caused by the passage of orbiting planets & # 39; faces.

The famous NASA Kepler Space Telescope used this same "transit method" with a lot of effect, discovering about 70% of the 3,750 exoplanets known to date. But TESS could be even more prolific than Kepler when all is said and done, said TESS team members

And, because TESS will study relatively close stars, he should find at least some worlds of which the atmospheres can be analyzed in depth. by other instruments, including NASA's $ 8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to be launched in 2021. This follow-up work could include the search for methane, oxygen and phosphorus. other gases that can be evidence of extraterrestrial life. The final scientific orbit is one that no other spaceship has ever occupied. TESS zooms around the Earth on a highly elliptical 13.7 day trail that takes it as close to our planet as 108,000 kilometers (67,000 miles) and as far as 373,000 kilometers (232,000 miles). Mission team members indicated that this orbit is very stable and has low radiation exposure and low thermal variation.

The main mission of TESS is planned to last at least two years.

@michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+. Published originally on Space.com