RSS
Home
Kepler launch delayed as NASA works problems with several missions
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
NASA officials have decided to delay the launch of the planet-hunting Kepler telescope for at least a day. After Tuesday's loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory due to a payload fairing problem onboard the Taurus rocket, engineers now have decided to take extra time to examine the fairing onboard Kepler's Delta rocket.
NASA has appointed Rick Obenschain, deputy director of Goddard Space Flight Center, to head up a mishap board investigating the loss of the $273.4 million OCO. The mission lifted off smoothly, but later crashed in the ocean near Antarctica.
It's been a rough couple of weeks for NASA. Space shuttle Discovery is still grounded at Kennedy Space Center due to problems with critical flow control valves in the propulsion system. Extra testing and imaging are underway, and managers will meet again next week to determine if Discovery can fly with a less-used set of valves.
The Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter suddenly rebooted itself and then put its systems into a "safe" mode this week. The mission team at JPL says that the craft's hardware seems to be fine, and that they believe they can restore normal, full-scale operations in a few days. Work is still underway to coax MRO back to full-time work.
Kepler is designed to search for Earth-like planets, according to JPL:
The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone→ of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.
The Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone→ and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.
Valued at $600 million, Kepler is now targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, next to Kennedy Space Center, on March 6 at 10:49 p.m.
Image of fairing being placed around Kepler/NASA
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
