NASA Extends Kepler, Spitzer, Planck Missions

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2012-097 April 5, 2012

NASA Extends Kepler, Spitzer, Planck Missions

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-097&cid=release_2012-097

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is extending three missions affiliated with the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- Kepler, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the U.S. portion of the
European Space Agency's Planck mission -- as a result of the 2012 Senior Review of
Astrophysics Missions.

The 2012 NASA Senior Review report, which includes these three missions and six others also
being extended, is available at: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/2012-senior-review .

"This means scientists can continue using the three spacecraft to study everything from the birth
of the universe with Planck, and galaxies, stars, planets, comets and asteroids with Spitzer, while
Kepler is determining what percentage of sun-like stars host potentially habitable Earth-like
planets," said Michael Werner, the chief scientist for astronomy and physics at JPL.

Kepler has been approved for extension through fiscal year 2016, which ends Sept. 30, 2016. All
fiscal year 2015 and 2016 decisions are for planning purposes and will be revisited in the 2014
Senior Review. The extension provides four additional years to find Earth-size planets in the
habitable zone -- the region in a planetary system where liquid water could exist on the surface
of the orbiting planet -- around sun-like stars in our galaxy.

Spitzer, launched in 2003, continues to provide the astronomical community with its unique
infrared images. It has continued to explore the cosmos since running out of coolant, as expected,
in 2009. Among its many duties during its warm mission, the observatory is probing the
atmospheres of planets beyond our sun and investigating the glow of some of the most distant
galaxies known. As requested by the project, Spitzer received two additional years of operations.
Like other NASA missions, the Spitzer team will be able to apply for a further extension in 2014.

NASA will fund one additional year of U.S. participation in the European Space Agency's
Planck mission, for the U.S. Planck data center and for operations of Planck's Low Frequency
Instrument. Planck, launched in 2009, is gathering data from the very early universe, shortly after
its explosive birth in a big bang. Planck's observations are yielding insight into the origin,
evolution and fate of our universe. The U.S. Planck team will apply for additional funding after a
third data release has been approved by the European consortiums.

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system development,
mission operations and science data analysis. JPL managed the Kepler mission's development.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and
supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the
University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives,
hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery mission and is
funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. For
more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler and
http://kepler.nasa.gov .

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at
the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. For more information about Spitzer,
visit: http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA. NASA's
Planck Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for both of
Planck's science instruments. European, Canadian and U.S. Planck scientists will work together
to analyze the Planck data. More information is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/planck and
http://www.esa.int/planck .

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages JPL for NASA.

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