NASA's Kepler Mission Rockets to Space in Search of Other Earths

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Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673/818-458-9008
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J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Michael Mewhinney 650-604-3937
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,Calif.
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George Diller 321-861-7643
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
george.h.diller@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-043 March 6, 2009

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 (7:49 p.m.
PST), Friday, March 6. 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 EST (9:11 p.m. Friday PST), after it
separated from its spent third-stage rocket and entered its final sun-centered orbit, trailing about 1,529
kilometers (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 about 100 million kilometers (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 .

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