The agency announced on Monday afternoon (Feb. 10) that it has picked SpaceX to launch Pandora, a 716-pound (325-kilogram) satellite designed to help scientists better understand how our understanding of exoplanets ' atmospheres are affected by changes in their host stars.

Takeoff will be from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the mission will carry a crew of four to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Anne McClain will command the mission and Nichole Ayers will be the pilot. The flight will be McClain's second and Ayers' first.

NASA has selected SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, to provide the launch service for the agency's Pandora mission, which will study at least 20 known exoplanets and their host stars to find out how changes in stars affect our observations of exoplanet atmospheres.