From: NASA News <hqnews.nul>
Date: Sat 07 Mar 2009 01:00:01 EST
Archived: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:21:12 -0500
Subject: Kepler Mission In Space


March 7, 2009

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington.nul

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin.nul

Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,Calif.
650-604-3937
michael.s.mewhinney.nul

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-861-7643
george.h.diller.nul

RELEASE: 09-052

NASA'S KEPLER MISSION ROCKETS TO SPACE IN SEARCH OF OTHER EARTHS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Kepler mission successfully
launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.,
aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST,
Friday. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets
orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the
planet's surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for
the formation of life.

"It was a stunning launch," said Kepler Project Manager James
Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Our team is thrilled to be a part of something so meaningful to
the human race -- Kepler will help us understand if our Earth is
unique or if others like it are out there."

Engineers acquired a signal from Kepler at 12:11 a.m. Saturday,
after it separated from its spent third-stage rocket and entered
its final sun-centered orbit, trailing 950 miles behind Earth.
The spacecraft is generating its own power from its solar
panels.

"Kepler now has the perfect place to watch more than 100,000
stars for signs of planets," said William Borucki, the mission's
science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center at
Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki has worked on the mission for 17
years. "Everyone is very excited as our dream becomes a reality.
We are on the verge of learning if other Earths are ubiquitous
in the galaxy."

Engineers have begun to check Kepler to ensure it is working
properly, a process called "commissioning" that will take about
60 days. In about a month or less, NASA will send up commands
for Kepler to eject its dust cover and make its first
measurements. After another month of calibrating Kepler's single
instrument, a wide-field charge-couple device camera, the
telescope will begin to search for planets.

The first planets to roll out on the Kepler "assembly line" are
expected to be the portly "hot Jupiters" -- gas giants that
circle close and fast around their stars. NASA's Hubble and
Spitzer space telescopes will be able to follow up with these
planets and learn more about their atmospheres. Neptune-size
planets will most likely be found next, followed by rocky ones
as small as Earth. The true Earth analogs -- Earth-sized planets
orbiting stars like our sun at distances where surface water,
and possibly life, could exist -- would take at least three
years to discover and confirm. Ground-based telescopes also will
contribute to the mission by verifying some of the finds.

In the end, Kepler will give us our first look at the frequency
of Earth-size planets in our Milky Way galaxy, as well as the
frequency of Earth-size planets that could theoretically be
habitable.

"Even if we find no planets like Earth, that by itself would be
profound. It would indicate that we are probably alone in the
galaxy," said Borucki.

As the mission progresses, Kepler will drift farther and farther
behind Earth in its orbit around the sun. NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope, which was launched into the same orbit more than five
years ago, is now more than 62 million miles behind Earth.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is the home
organization of the science principal investigator and is
responsible for the ground system development, mission
operations and science data analysis. JPL manages the Kepler
mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of
Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the Kepler flight
system and supporting mission operations. NASA's Launch Services
Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., managed the launch
service including payload integration and certifying the Delta
II launch vehicle for NASA's use.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/kepler


-end-




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