NASA Launching Planet Hunting Spacecraft

Florida Cape Canaveral The spacecraft is named Kepler after the German 17th-century astrophysicist and it will be on the lookout for possible Earths in one faraway corner of the galaxy.
by The Associated Press
Published: Thu, March 05, 2009 - 12:58 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, March 05, 2009 - 1:01 pm CST
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA is on the verge of launching a
planet-hunting spacecraft.
The spacecraft is named Kepler after the German 17th-century
astrophysicist and it will be on the lookout for possible Earths in
one faraway corner of the galaxy.
It's scheduled to rocket away from Cape Canaveral late Friday
night. Excellent launch weather is forecast.
Kepler will spend more than three years staring at 100,000
stars, measuring their brightness and any winks in the light that
might signify orbiting planets. The mission will cost $600 million,
from start to finish.
The launch comes on the heels of a failed flight of a NASA
science satellite from California, just over a week ago.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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