NASA's Pandora mission, which aims to document at least 20 known exoplanets orbiting distant stars, will be launched by SpaceX from its Starbase launch site in Cameron County, Texas.
NASA officials said Monday that SpaceX and its Starbase launch complex have been selected by the space agency to launch the Pandora satellite mission at an unspecified date.
The Pandora satellite is expected to launch this fall, following the recent completion of the spacecraft's platform, which provides its structure, power and other systems needed to complete the mission.
“This is a significant milestone for us that will keep us on schedule for a fall launch,” said Elisa Quintana, Pandora's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“The bus carries our instruments and controls navigation, data collection and communications with Earth – it's the brains of the spacecraft.”
Pandora is a small satellite designed to study the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system.
The satellite will also record the activity of its respective host stars and track how the light changes as planets pass in front of them.
According to NASA, such astronomical phenomena make it possible to study the atmospheres of the corresponding exoplanets by recording the passage of light through them.
Data collected by the Pandora satellite will help NASA researchers confirm measurements made by the James Webb Space Telescope and support future NASA missions to search for habitable planets.
The presence of water will be a key factor in determining which planets can be explored in similar future missions.
Pandora will carry an additional near-infrared detector, originally developed for the Webb Space Telescope, that will be used to improve the telescope's ability to separate stellar signals from exoplanet atmospheres.
This will lead to more accurate measurements of each planet's atmosphere and the likelihood of it containing water.
“We view water as a critical element for habitability because it is essential for life as we know it,” said Goddard's Ben Hord, a NASA postdoctoral fellow, at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.
“The problem is that changes in the light from the host star can mask or mimic the water signal,” Hord said. “Separating these sources is where Pandora can help.”
The satellite will observe each planet at least 10 times, with each observation lasting at least 24 hours. The data obtained will be transmitted to Earth via a supporting spacecraft.
The Pandora satellite will use a 17-inch telescope developed jointly by Corning and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Pandora's initial mission is expected to last one year, is funded by NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers program, and is a joint project of NASA Goddard and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
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