Rank 29 documents TESS — the 362 kg MIT / Goddard Explorer mission that surveys 85 percent of the sky from a 2:1 lunar-resonance orbit for transiting exoplanets around nearby bright stars. George Ricker's team launched aboard Falcon 9 on 18 April 2018, generating the TOI catalog that JWST and ground observatories use for atmospheric follow-up. Four wide-field CCD cameras tile the ecliptic in 27-day sectors, finding Earth-size candidates around stars close enough for spectroscopy. With more than 6,000 planet candidates catalogued, TESS complements Kepler's distant statistical census with a bright-star target list for the 2020s characterization era. Heritage Collector renders the four-camera spacecraft, ecliptic survey map, and transit star diagram exactly as the master PNG dictates.