Delay Allows Time To Ensure Kepler Doesn’t Meet Fate Of Satellite Last Week
The Kepler space telescope launch has been shifted to Friday night, a day later than planned, so that experts have time to ensure Kepler won’t meet the unfortunate fate of a NASA satellite that failed to reach orbit last week, NASA announced.
That Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite was lofted by a Taurus XL rocket supplied by Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB]. While the rocket performed flawlessly, the nosecone fairing protecting the satellite during launch failed to separate, causing the satellite to wind up crashing into the sea near Antarctica. (Please see full story in this issue.)
Kepler, on the other hand, will be orbited by a Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Delta, a design of The Boeing Co. [BA], is supplied by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT].
In the Friday Kepler liftoff, there are two launch windows, from 10:49 to 10:52 p.m. and 11:13 to 11:16 p.m. ET.
Kepler is a spaceborne telescope designed to search the nearby region of the galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like the sun. The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures permit water to be liquid on a planet’s surface.
Liquid water is considered essential for the existence of life as we know it.
The vast majority of the approximately 300 planets known to orbit other stars are much larger than Earth, and none is believed to be habitable.
So the challenge for Kepler is to look at a large number of stars in order to statistically estimate the total number of Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars in the habitable zone.
Kepler will survey more than 100,000 stars.
Engineers are reviewing all common hardware between the Delta II rocket carrying the Kepler telescope and the ill-fated Taurus XL launch vehicle that failed to reach orbit last week. Managers want to confirm there will not be similar issues with Kepler’s Delta II.
Kepler’s original Thursday target launch date was moved one day later to accommodate the additional time for analysis.
The Friday target date still must be confirmed by the Air Force, which manages the eastern launch range. Kepler’s Flight Readiness Review is today.
NASA’s Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is responsible for the launch of Kepler aboard a Delta II 7925-10L rocket. United Launch Alliance is conducting the launch for NASA.
NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is the home organization of the principal science investigator and is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for the spacecraft and the Kepler mission development.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing and building the Kepler spacecraft and supporting mission operations.