A NASA satellite has embarked on a quest for planets where life might exist.

Propelled by a Falcon 9 rocket supplied by private firm SpaceX, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) hurtled off of a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida and into its search for so-called “exoplanets”, or worlds capable of potentially supporting life.

The launch followed a two-day delay for additional testing on guidance and navigation systems.

TESS will watch for flickers of starlight emitted when planets pass in front of stars they orbit as scientists hope to catalogue thousands of new planets. They expect to discover hundreds of new exoplanets within that larger set.

It was the latest successful launch for SpaceX, a company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that has in recent months deployed a fleet of communications satellites and hurled the world’s most powerful rocket into space.

In addition to sending TESS into space, SpaceX caught a tumbling rocket component in a seaborne vessel.

Nasa unveils space tourism posters Show all 6 1 /6 Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters Nasa's canny decision to commission sumptuous vintage-inspired posters by Seattle design firm Invisible Creature has firmly placed space travel back where it belongs: in the imagination of travellers Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters It is particularly fitting that the Nasa commission went to Don and Ryan Clark, who have been running Invisible Creature since 2006, undertaking projects for the likes of Nike and Target Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters "We were ecstatic, just because our grandfather was an illustrator at Nasa for 30 years," says Clark Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters The artwork harks back to the Jet Age-era posters commissioned by Howard Hughes' Trans World Airlines and its rival United in the 1950s and 1960s, when the work of David Klein (for TWA) and Stan Galli (for United) glamorised and essentially branded this new age of air travel Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters It doesn't matter that Nasa has no plans for a "Grand Tour" of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus Nasa Nasa unveils space tourism posters Nasa space tourism posters If global travel is for daydreamers, going beyond the atmosphere is for true space cadets Nasa

The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean named “Of Course I Still Love You”.

As SpaceX has demonstrated the potential for privately funded space flight, the Trump administration has pledged a renewed commitment to space exploration.

Trump: 'My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a warfighting domain, just like the land, air and sea'