SpaceX and NASA have delayed a major satellite launch.
The Elon Musk-led aerospace company said Monday that it had postponed a scheduled Monday launch because it must conduct additional testing related to the mission’s guidance, navigation, and control systems. SpaceX did not elaborate about testing to be done.
As part of the planned mission, SpaceX will launch NASA’s new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, satellite that will be used to search for new planets. The spacecraft will monitor the brightness of over 200,000 stars in order to see if any get dimmer, which could indicate that they have orbiting planets, according to NASA.
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Standing down today to conduct additional GNC analysis, and teams are now working towards a targeted launch of @NASA_TESS on Wednesday, April 18.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 16, 2018
NASA considers its TESS space mission to be a successor to the Kepler Space Telescope, which was launched in 2009.
Last week, SpaceX was reported to be raising $507 million in new funding in a round that would value it at $25 billion.
