TESS has Resumed Normal Operations

The transiting exoplanet survey satellite was launched by NASA in April. TESS has been using the transit method for five years to find extrasolar planets. There are thousands of stars that are monitored for dips in brightness, which can indicate a planet passing in front of the star. TESS has made 243 confirmed discoveries so far, with another 4562 candidates waiting to be confirmed.

Fans of the TESS mission got a scare when the observatory experienced a malfunction and had to be put into safe mode. On October 13th, NASA announced that they had successfully powered up the instrument and brought it online. While technicians at NASA are still investigating the cause of the malfunction, the spaceship is back in fine-pointing mode and has resumed its second extended mission.

TESS had to be put into safe mode for reasons that are not yet known. Science operations are suspended until the mission team can determine the source of the problem. Any information that has not yet been downlinked to mission control will be safely stored aboard the space telescope's computer.

The TESS operations team reported on October 12th that science data had been safely stored and that it would take several days for the telescope to resume normal operations. They said that they had successfully restored power to the telescope. According to the latest update from NASA, TESS has resumed normal science operations, and all the science data stored on board will be downlinked at the next available opportunity.

The TESS mission has had a good year so far. An independent comparative review that NASA periodically conducts of its operational missions began with the satellite being part of a science mission directorate senior review. TESS was included in a senior review for the second time. In both cases, TESS received high rankings for its many discoveries.

TESS launched Year 5 of its exoplanet-hunting campaign in September. Five more sectors in the north will be scanned by the exoplanet finder as part of the campaign. The first extended mission provided 10-minute FFIs for each sector, compared to the 30-minute FFIs during its primary mission. This will lead to many exciting discoveries by creating an unprecedented amount of images for TESS.

After scanning the southern hemisphere, TESS will return to the ecliptic to survey the northern hemisphere. The second mission extension will come to an end in October.

NASA engineers are trying to find the cause of the malfunction. There will be further updates on the NASA TESS mission page.

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