Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite first light, 2018. This satellite is NASA's next step in the search for planets outside the solar system, also known as exoplanets. TESS launched on 18 April 2018. It was placed in a highly elliptical lunar resonant orbit (P/2) to carry out its all-sky survey. This image, obtained on 7 August with four cameras and 16 detectors (one for each square of the image), includes the Large Magellanic Cloud (far right) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (centre right), as well as a number of bright stars and globular clusters. The bright star at lower left is Beta Gruis. The bright star at lower right (below the LMC) is the variable star R Doradus. Image released in September 2018.