Kepler Launch Moved to Next Friday

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope will fly at least a day later than planned because of this week's failed rocket launch from California.

The spacecraft is now scheduled to blast off no earlier than next Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 17-B, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.

Two launch windows run from 10:49 p.m. to 10:52 p.m., and from 11:13 p.m. to 11:16 p.m.

ULA engineers are reviewing their hardware for any common components with the Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus XL, whose payload fairing on Tuesday remained clamped around NASA's $273.4-million Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite.

The payload failed to reach orbit and plunged into the ocean near Antarctica. A NASA investigative board is being assembled.

NASA's Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, oversaw Tuesday's flight and is also managing the Kepler launch.

The Air Force still must confirm the Friday target launch date, NASA said.

It would kick off a busy stretch of Cape launches, if all the dates held.

Space shuttle Discovery is tentatively planning a liftoff to the International Space Station no earlier than March 12. The Air Force has a communications satellite launch on a ULA Atlas V scheduled a day later.

The Kepler team will hold an engineering review Saturday in advance of a flight readiness review Monday, when an official launch date and time will be set.

The $600-million, 3.5-year mission will search for Earth-like planets around more than 100,000 sun-like stars in the Milky Way.

The planets would be similar in size to Earth and occupy "habitable zones" around their stars, meaning temperatures would allow for liquid water on the surface of the planets.

Check out this fact sheet for more about the mission.

And click here to see a full schedule of upcoming launches from the Cape.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the images. Above, on Thursday, on Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first half of the fairing is moved into place around NASA's Kepler spacecraft, atop the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the rocket and forms an aerodynamically smooth nose cone, protecting the spacecraft during launch and ascent. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller. Below, a Kepler mission poster.