TESS TESS launched April 18, 2018 at 6:51 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Regular science operations with TESS began on July 25, 2018. TESS is now executing its survey, observing one sector at a time, starting in the southern hemisphere. TESS will continue to tile the sky with 27.4 day-long sectors during its 2 year prime mission.
Sector dates
The start and end dates for each sector, and the list of GI targets (csv file) observed in each sector, are below. A summary of TESS data available at the MAST can be found here and information on how to download the data can be found here.
Sector dates
| Sector | Hemisphere | Start | Stop | Data available |
GI target list | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s001 | South | 2018 Jul 25 | 2018 Aug 22 | 2018 Dec 06 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s002 | South | 2018 Aug 22 | 2018 Sep 20 | 2018 Dec 06 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s003 | South | 2018 Sep 20 | 2018 Oct 18 | 2019 Jan 25 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s004 | South | 2018 Oct 18 | 2018 Nov 15 | 2019 Jan 25 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s005 | South | 2018 Nov 15 | 2018 Dec 11 | 2019 Feb 25 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s006 | South | 2018 Dec 15 | 2019 Jan 07 | 2019 Mar 07 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s007 | South | 2019 Jan 07 | 2019 Feb 02 | 2019 Apr 02 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s008 | South | 2019 Feb 02 | 2019 Feb 28 | 2019 Apr 28 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s009 | South | 2019 Feb 28 | 2019 Mar 26 | 2019 May 26 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s010 | South | 2019 Mar 26 | 2019 Apr 22 | 2019 Jun 22 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s011 | South | 2019 Apr 22 | 2019 May 21 | 2019 Jul 21 | Download | Data available at MAST |
| s012 | South | 2019 May 21 | 2019 Jun 19 | 2019 Aug 19 | Download | Data being downlinked |
| s013 | South | 2019 Jun 19 | 2019 Jul 18 | 2019 Sep 18 | Currently being observed | |
| s014 | North | 2019 Jul 18 | 2019 Aug 15 | 2019 Oct 15 | Pointing shifted toward the North ecliptic pole by 31 degrees (see the technical details page for more information) | |
| s015 | North | 2019 Aug 15 | 2019 Sep 11 | 2019 Nov 11 | Pointing shifted toward the North ecliptic pole by 31 degrees (see the technical details page for more information) | |
| s016 | North | 2019 Sep 11 | 2019 Oct 07 | 2019 Dec 07 | ||
| s017 | North | 2019 Oct 07 | 2019 Nov 02 | 2020 Jan 02 | ||
| s018 | North | 2019 Nov 02 | 2019 Nov 27 | 2020 Jan 27 | ||
| s019 | North | 2019 Nov 27 | 2019 Dec 24 | 2020 Feb 24 | ||
| s020 | North | 2019 Dec 24 | 2020 Jan 21 | 2020 Mar 21 | ||
| s021 | North | 2020 Jan 21 | 2020 Feb 18 | 2020 Apr 18 | ||
| s022 | North | 2020 Feb 18 | 2020 Mar 18 | 2020 May 18 | ||
| s023 | North | 2020 Mar 18 | 2020 Apr 15 | 2020 Jun 15 | ||
| s024 | North | 2020 Apr 15 | 2020 May 13 | 2020 Jul 13 | ||
| s025 | North | 2020 May 13 | 2020 Jun 08 | 2020 Aug 08 | ||
| s026 | North | 2020 Jun 08 | 2020 Jul 04 | 2020 Sep 04 |
Distribution of targets
Illustrations showing all targets (in red) observed at 2-minute cadence for each camera and sector.
