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Post Info TOPIC: Kepler mission


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NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope will fly at least a day later than planned because of this week's failed rocket launch from California.
The spacecraft is now scheduled to blast off no earlier than next Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 17-B, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.
Two launch windows run from 10:49 p.m. to 10:52 p.m., and from 11:13 p.m. to 11:16 p.m.

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The telescope Nasa is preparing for launch next month won't reveal if there is intelligent life in the Universe, but it should at least provide concrete evidence that there are places like Earth for ET to live.

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NASA will hold a media briefing on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 1 p.m. EST, to discuss the upcoming Kepler mission. Kepler is the first spacecraft with the ability to find Earth-size planets orbiting stars like our sun in a zone where liquid water could exist. The televised briefing will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. S.W., Washington.

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NASA unveiled a modest telescope on Friday with a sweeping mission to discover if there are any Earth-type planets orbiting distant stars.
Though astronomers have found more than 330 planets circling stars in other solar systems, none has the size and location that is believed to be key to supporting life.
Once in position trailing Earth in orbit, Kepler will spend at least 3 1/2 years focused on a star-rich patch of sky between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

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The launch of NASA's Kepler telescope, the first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars, is scheduled for March 5 at 10:48 p.m. EST, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

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Kepler space telescope
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NASA's Kepler space telescope, a sharp-eyed spacecraft designed to hunt for Earth-like planets, is ready to ship out for an early March launch.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. - the Boulder, Colorado-based NASA contractor responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations - recently completed the spacecraft's final pre-ship checkout and delivered the spacecraft to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for a March 5 liftoff on a Delta 2 booster.

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Engineers are getting ready to pack NASA's Kepler spacecraft into a container and ship it off to its launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The mission, scheduled to launch on March 5, will seek to answer an age-old question -- are there other Earths in space?  

"Kepler is ready to begin its journey to its launch site, and ultimately to space, where it will answer a question that has been pondered by humankind at least as long ago as the ancient Greeks" - James Fanson, the project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , California.

Kepler will monitor more than 100,000 stars for signatures of planets of various sizes and orbital distances. It has the ability to locate rocky planets like Earth, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them, and the first to measure their frequency.

"Kepler's mission is to determine whether Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of other stars are frequent or rare; whether life in our Milky Way galaxy is likely to be frequent or rare" - William Borucki, the Kepler science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California.

Kepler is currently at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder , Colorado. It passed all its environmental tests ensuring that it is prepared for the harsh trip to space. It also passed what's called the "pre-ship review," meaning that it is ready to be shipped via convoy to Florida in early January. Its first stop will be Astrotech in Titusville , Florida , where the spacecraft will be processed before being carried to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral . Kepler will launch atop a Delta II rocket.

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NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Baked and Ready for More Tests
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, has survived an extreme temperature test.
The thermal vacuum test is part of a series of environmental tests the spacecraft will undergo before it blasts into space aboard a Delta II rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

"Kepler functioned extremely well at the intense temperatures it will encounter in space" - James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , California.

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Put your name on board the Kepler spacecraft.
Would you like to send your name into space? Submit your name  and it will be stored on a DVD and rocketed into space on board the Kepler spacecraft.
The deadline to submit your name is November 1, 2008.

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The largest optical mirror ever built for a mission beyond Earth’s orbit has arrived at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. for environmental testing and spacecraft integration.

NASA’s Kepler mission, with a field of view 70,000 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope, will attempt to detect Earth-like planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. By continuously monitoring the brightness of more than 100,000 stars, Kepler will search for planets that transit in front of stars. As a planet passes in front of its parent star, Kepler will detect the star’s brightness change to determine the planet's size and orbit. The possible discovery of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of other stars will be the first step in determining the extent of life in our galaxy.

Ball Aerospace is the prime contractor for the Kepler mission, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the NASA Ames Research Centre. In addition to the 0.95-meter photometer, Ball Aerospace is building the spacecraft, and will perform system integration and testing. The 1.4-meter primary mirror was produced by subcontractor L-3 Communications Brashear.

"Arrival of the technologically advanced Kepler mirror is an important milestone. By leveraging our spacecraft design from the successful Deep Impact mission and our instrument expertise from the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, we will further contribute to NASA’s search for extrasolar planets" - David L. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace.

Kepler, which is scheduled to launch in 2008, was one of two NASA Discovery-class missions selected in 2001.

Ball Aerospace is celebrating its 50th year in business in 2006. The company began building pointing controls for military rockets in 1956, and later won a contract to build one of NASA’s first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory. Over the years, the company has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific ‘firsts’ and now acts as a technology innovator in important national missions.
Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which develops sensors, spacecraft, systems and components for government and commercial customers. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and the company employs 15,600 people worldwide.

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