The agency announced on Monday afternoon (Feb. 10) that it has picked SpaceX to launch Pandora, a 716-pound (325-kilogram) satellite designed to help scientists better understand how our understanding of exoplanets' atmospheres are affected by changes in their host stars.
Pandora will lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than this fall, according to NASA officials.
Pandora will head to low Earth orbit. Once there, the satellite will observe at least 20 known transiting exoplanets — worlds that cross the face of their parent star from the telescope's perspective. It will observe these planets 10 separate times, staring at them for 24 hours on each occasion.
The SpaceX selection was made via NASA's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.
Pandora won't be the first NASA exoplanet probe that SpaceX launches. The agency's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) lifted off atop a Falcon 9 in April 2018.
Source: www.space.com
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