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Kepler Prepared for Launch

Kepler Prepared for Launch
Kepler Prepared for Launch

On Launch pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers moved NASA’s Kepler spacecraft toward the opening above the Delta II rocket. The spacecraft was lowered into the opening and mated with the Delta II for launch. Liftoff is currently set for 10:49 p.m. EST March 6. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star’s “habitable zone,” a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Image credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller Feb. 21, 2009