TESS Planet Hunter Spacecraft Key Ring

The NASA TESS or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite launched in 2018 has a two year mission to find perhaps thousands of new planets beyond our solar system. These exoplanets are orbiting bright stars nearby. TESS detects them by looking for slight dips in the star light as the planet passes in front of its sun. TESS is orbiting the Earth in a elliptical orbit that reaches out to the distance of the Moon, but not near enough Earth to interfere with geosynchronous satellites.