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TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite,

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is NASA's newest exoplanet mission.

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Led by MIT, TESS will find thousands of

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new planets orbiting nearby stars.

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To accomplish this, TESS will fly in a special,

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highly elliptical orbit that maximizes the amount of sky the spacecraft

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can image. Once TESS has launched, it will expand its orbit

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until it can get a gravitational assist from the Moon.

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This "slingshot" will move it into a stable orbit that is tipped

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at about 40 degrees from the Moon's orbital plane.

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TESS orbits Earth in exactly half the time it takes the Moon

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to orbit once. This feature helps stabilize

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the spacecraft's orbit against tugs from the Moon's gravity.

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TESS will spend most of its

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13.7-day orbit observing the sky. As it approaches

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Earth, TESS will rotate, and transmit all its accumulated data

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to scientists on the ground. Over two years,

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this will allow TESS to study nearly the entire sky,

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and potentially find thousands of new exoplanets.