SpaceX has launched the $337 million satellite that will carry on the mission of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, to hunt for planets beyond our solar system in greater detail than ever before.<br /><br />The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) blasted away from Earth atop a Falcon 9 rocket on schedule at 6:51 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.<br /><br />'As you just saw, Falcon 9 has successfully cleared the pad and is now on its ascent with the TESS spacecraft in its faring,' the announcers confirmed as the rocket climbed through the sky.<br /><br />Minutes after launch, SpaceX managed to successfully recover the Falcon 9's first stage by landing it on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 185 miles off the coast.
