Live at the Cape: Kepler Launch a Success

NASA's Kepler spacecraft separated from the Delta II rocket's third stage just over an hour after blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, marking a successful conclusion to Friday night's launch.

Mission managers received more good news after midnight.

Kepler communicated with a tracking station in California at 12:11 a.m. EST Saturday, and a short time later confirmed that its solar panels were producing power.

All systems appear to be operating properly as the spacecraft coasts toward an orbit trailing Earth around the sun.

It took several minutes to confirm separation from the United Launch Alliance vehicle through a tracking station in Australia, adding some suspense to the outcome.

Launch managers said they were trying to figure out what caused the delay, but the desired result was achieved.

"It was a very smooth countdown," said Omar Baez, launch director for NASA's Launch Services Program, which is based at Kennedy Space Center.

The program rebounded from a setback last month, when a NASA climate satellite failed to reach orbit after launching from California.

Friday marked the 139th successful launch by a Delta II in the program's 20-year history.

Kepler now begins a 60-day commissioning phase before it officially begins hunting for planets.

Once it is up and running, around May, Kepler will begin to stare at more than 100,000 stars in the Milky Way, recording minute changes in light caused by crossing, or transiting, planets.

For at least 3.5 years, the $600 million mission will monitor changes in the stars' brightness.

Kepler hopes to determine if rocky planets the size of Earth are common or not, and to estimate how many orbit in habitable zones around their stars - places where liquid water and life could exist.

It takes about a year for Earth-size planets to circle the habitable zone of stars like our sun, and scientists want to see three transits before confirming a planet's existence.

So mission findings that are expected to rewrite textbooks will likely take about four years to announce.

Mission scientists expect to find dozens of Earths in habitable regions, but say the results will be just as profound if they find none.

"Kepler is, frankly, a mission for the ages," said Geoff Marsy, a science co-investigator for the mission from the University of California at Berkeley, before the launch. "It is the first telescope capable of detecting Earth-like planets around other stars. And of course since the time of the Greeks - Aristotle, Democritus - they pondered whether the Earth was unique."

Ground-based telescopes have found more than 300 planets over the last 15 years, mostly gas giants that could not support life.

If you're interested in learning more about the Kepler mission - named for German astronomer Johannes Kepler - here's some useful reading material:

Click here to download and save NASA's official Kepler Press Kit

Click here for NASA's Kepler Fact Sheet

Here's a Florida Today story describing the mission: Kepler Looks For E.T.'s Home.

For a look at other missions coming up, take a look at our new Florida Today Space Coast Launch Schedule.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge and save the awesome image captured by Florida Today Chief Photographer Malcolm Denemark. Then click the enlarged image to get an even bigger, more detailed view. The timed exposure shows spectators watching the Delta II launch on the world's most famous beach. Photo credit: AP Photo/Florida Today, Malcom Denemark. Below: a NASA image showing Kepler's planned orbit. And an image by Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society in Oakland, Calif., showing the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft/photometer will be pointing. Each rectangle indicates the specific region of the sky covered by each Charged Coupled Device element of the Kepler photometer. There are a total of 42 CCD elements in pairs, each pair comprising a square. Credit: Carter Roberts/Eastbay Astronomical Society.