Hawthorne-based SpaceX delayed the launch, initially scheduled. Tess is comparatively cheap with a price tag of $200m (£140m) plus an additional $87m for launch. NASAs planet-hunting spacecraft embarked Wednesday on a quest to find new worlds around neighboring stars that could support life. In the event, the launch went without a hitch and Tess lifted off on a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch was originally scheduled for Monday 16 April but delayed because of a potential issue with the rocket’s guidance system.

It is expected to discover thousands of previously unknown worlds, some of them potentially habitable, by detecting the small drops in light that occur when each planet passes across the face of its parent star. See more stories on Insiders business page. The mission is now set to launch aboard SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket in October 2024. The Europa Clipper aims to search for signs of aquatic alien life in Europas vast underground ocean. The spacecraft will spend at least two years observing more than 200,000 nearby stars and looking for planets. NASA has awarded SpaceX a 178 million contract to launch a spacecraft to Jupiters moon Europa. These manoeuvres include a close flyby of the moon to help place Tess on a highly elliptical path that swings from 108,000 kilometres to 373,000 kilometres above Earth. It was deployed into Earth orbit 49 minutes later, to start a series of manoeuvres that will get it into its operational orbit by mid-June. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) took to the skies at 23.51 BST (18.51 EDT).

Nasa’s next planet-hunting mission has launched from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on SpaceXs first high-priority science mission for NASA, a planet-hunting orbital telescope designed to detect worlds beyond our solar system that might be capable of harbouring life.

Spacex launches nasa planet-hunting s