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News Releases --||-- Manager's Updates --||-- Pre-Launch History -||- Schedule
 2009 August 6. NASA'S Kepler Mission Spies Changing Phases in a Distant World - WASHINGTON -- NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities. ...these new data indicate the mission is indeed capable of finding Earth-like planets, if they exist...."When the light curves from tens of thousands of stars were shown to the Kepler science team, everyone was awed; no one had ever seen such exquisitely detailed measurements of the light variations of so many different types of stars," said William Borucki, the principal science investigator.... The observations were collected from a planet called HAT-P-7, known to transit a star located about 1,000 light years from Earth. The planet orbits the star in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun. ...It is so close to its star, the planet is as hot as the glowing red heating element on a stove. ...these new measurements are so precise, they also show a smooth rise and fall of the light between transits caused by the changing phases of the planet, similar to those of our moon. This is a combination of both the light emitted from the planet and the light reflected off the planet. The smooth rise and fall of light is also punctuated by a small drop in light, called an occultation, exactly halfway between each transit. An occultation happens when a planet passes behind a star. ...The depth of the occultation and the shape and amplitude of the light curve show the planet has an atmosphere with a day-side temperature of about 4,310 degrees Fahrenheit. ..."This early result shows the Kepler detection system is performing right on the mark," said David Koch, deputy principal investigator of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "It bodes well for Kepler's prospects to be able to detect Earth-size planets." Full Release.
 2009 August 3. NASA Announces Briefing About Kepler's Early Science Results - WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss early science results of the 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 be held in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. S.W., Washington. The briefing participants are:
- Jon Morse, NASA's Astrophysics Division director, NASA Headquarters
- William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
- Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
- Alan Boss, astrophysicist, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, Washington
Reporters may also ask questions from participating NASA locations or by telephone. To reserve a telephone line, contact J.D. Harrington by e-mail at:j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
For more information about NASA TV downlinks and streaming video,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
2009 May 13. KEPLER MISSION STATUS REPORT - 2009-084 - Let the Planet Hunt Begin. Excerpt: NASA's Kepler spacecraft has begun its search for other Earth-like worlds. The mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 6, will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars for telltale signs of planets. Kepler has the unique ability to find planets as small as Earth that orbit sun-like stars at distances where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans. "Now the fun begins," said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We are all really excited to start sorting through the data and discovering the planets." Scientists and engineers have spent the last two months checking out and calibrating the Kepler spacecraft. Data have been collected to characterize the imaging performance as well as the noise level in the measurement electronics. The scientists have constructed the list of targets for the start of the planet search, and this information has been loaded onto the spacecraft....
The mission's first finds are expected to be large, gas planets situated close to their stars. Such discoveries could be announced as early as next year. See Full Report.
 2009 April 16 NEWS RELEASE: 2009-067 - NASA'S KEPLER CAPTURES FIRST VIEWS OF PLANET-HUNTING TERRITORY
PASADENA, Calif. -- EXCERPT: NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth.
The new "first light" images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. One image shows millions of stars in Kepler's full field of view, while two others zoom in on portions of the larger region. The images can be seen online at: [project website; NASA portal; JPL Photojournal]
"Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking."
One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view -- a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The region contains an estimated 4.5 million stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting.
Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. In one image, a cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called NGC 6791, can be seen in the lower left corner. The other image zooms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days.
"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for Kepler at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."
...We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Bachtell has been working on the design, development and testing of Kepler for nine years.
2009 April 7 NEWS RELEASE: 2009-065 - DUST COVER JETTISONED FROM NASA'S KEPLER TELESCOPE
Excerpt: Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth.
"The cover released and flew away exactly as we designed it to do," said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is a critical step toward answering a question that has come down to us across 100 generations of human history -- are there other planets like Earth, or are we alone in the galaxy?"
..."Now the photometer can see the stars and will soon start the task of detecting the planets," said Kepler's Science Principal Investigator William Borucki at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We have thoroughly measured the background noise so that our photometer can detect minute changes in a star's brightness caused by planets."
At 7:13 p.m. PDT on April 7, engineers at Kepler's mission operations center at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colo., sent commands to pass an electrical current through a "burn wire" to break the wire and release a latch holding the cover closed. The spring-loaded cover swung open on a fly-away hinge, before drifting away from the spacecraft. The cover is now in its own orbit around the sun, similar to Kepler's sun-centric orbit. See an animation [med-res -|- low-res]....
With the cover off, starlight is entering the photometer and being imaged onto its focal plane. Engineers will continue calibrating the instrument using images of stars for another several weeks, after which science observations will begin.
 This artist's animation (higher res version -|- lower res version) illustrates how the dust cover on NASA's Kepler telescope will be ejected. Engineers will send a command up to the space telescope to pass an electrical current through a "burn wire." The burn wire will break and a latch holding the cover closed will be released. The spring-loaded cover will swing open on a fly-away hinge, before drifting away from the spacecraft and entering its own orbit around the sun. (Kepler is also orbiting the sun in what's called an Earth-trailing orbit.) With the cover off, starlight will enter Kepler's science instrument, the photometer, and be imaged onto its focal plane. Engineers will continue to calibrate the instrument using images of stars for another several weeks, after which science observations will begin.
April 7, 14:00 UTC - Distance to Kepler: 3,064,000 km; 1,904,000 mi; 0.02 AU; 7.97 times the distance to the Moon.
2009 Mar 7. March 7, 2009. RELEASE: 09-052 NASA'S KEPLER MISSION ROCKETS TO SPACE IN SEARCH OF OTHER EARTH. Excerpt: 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."
2009 Mar 6. Kepler Mission Rockets to Space in Search of Other Earths. Science@NASA. Excerpt: 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."
2009 Feb 26.  NASA'S Kepler Telescope to Launch Aboard Delta II Rocket. Excerpt: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Launch of NASA's Kepler telescope is targeted for no earlier than Friday, March 6, from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. There are two launch windows, from 10:49 - 10:52 p.m. and 11:13 - 11:16 p.m. EST.
 2009 Feb 25. NASA Tradition Continues from Generation to Generation. Excerpt: In the 1960s, two employees from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) met on a blind date. The couple eventually married and had twin identical boys one of whom has grown up to be the lead for the data analysis group of NASA's Kepler Mission - Jon Jenkins of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
 2009 Feb 25. Milwaukee Native Helps NASA Search for Earth-Size Planets. Excerpt: David Koch, the deputy principal investigator for the NASA Kepler Mission, has spent his life building things.
2009 Feb 20. Kepler Mission to Hunt for Earth-like Planets. Science@NASA. Includes audio recording.
 2009 Feb 19. NASA's Kepler Mission to Seek Other Earths. NASA RELEASE : 09-035. Excerpt: WASHINGTON -- NASA's Kepler spacecraft is ready to be moved to the launch pad today and will soon begin a journey to search for worlds that could potentially host life. Kepler is scheduled to blast into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket on March 5 at 10:48 p.m. EST. ..."Kepler is a critical component in NASA's broader efforts to ultimately find and study planets where Earth-like conditions may be present," said Jon Morse, the Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The planetary census Kepler takes will be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars." ...In the end, the mission will be our first step toward answering a question posed by the ancient Greeks: are there other worlds like ours or are we alone? "Finding that most stars have Earths implies that the conditions that support the development of life could be common throughout our galaxy," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "Finding few or no Earths indicates that we might be alone."
..."If Kepler were to look down at a small town on Earth at night from space, it would be able to detect the dimming of a porch light as somebody passed in front," said James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. By staring at one large patch of sky for the duration of its lifetime, Kepler will be able to watch planets periodically transit their stars over multiple cycles.... Full release.
2009 Jan 6. The Kepler Flight Segment arrived in Florida for launch processing at the Astrotech facility near Kennedy Space Center (KSC). You can follow the processing of Kepler and the launch vehicle by way of photos posted on the KSC photo page
2008 Dec 18. RELEASE : 08-111AR. NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Ready to Ship to Florida. The Kepler spacecraft shown at Ball Aerospace preparing to be shipped to Florida. Credit: NASA/JPL/Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – 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, Fla.
2008 Nov 6. Rocket Raised For NASA Planet Hunt. FloridaToday.com. Excerpt: A Delta 2 rocket that will launch a NASA planet-hunter is being raised at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station this week as the agency mounts a campaign to launch the spacecraft next spring. The 12-story United Launch Alliance rocket and its payload -- NASA's Kepler II spacecraft -- are tentatively slated to blast off March 5 from Launch Complex 17B.
 ...Kepler mission is aimed at surveying part of the Milky Way galaxy in an effort to uncover evidence of Earth-like planets orbiting stars in habitable zones.
...Built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., the spacecraft will use a powerful photometer to continuously measure the brightness of 100,000 stars, searching for planets that cross in front of them. A planet transiting in front of its parent star will block a small fraction of the star's light. Kepler will detect this change in brightness and use it to determine the planet's size and orbital period....
2008 Sep 23. NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Baked and Ready for More Tests
Excerpt: 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. ...The test, which was performed at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., simulates the vacuum of space, and the extreme temperatures Kepler will face once launched. The spacecraft is tucked into a vacuum chamber and surrounded by a cold shroud to mimic the deep chill of space. One side of the spacecraft -- the side with solar panels -- is then baked as if it were being heated by the sun. The goal is to make sure that the spacecraft and its detectors operate properly in the space-like environment. An electromagnetic compatibility test, to ensure Kepler's electronics are sound, will begin soon. See full JPL release 2008-179
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