NASA will brief reporters on the status of the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope, which has been sidelined by a reaction wheel problem that the mission team said last month appears unsolvable. Launched in 2009, the Ball Aerospace-built telescope has completed its 3.5-year prime mission and has been working on an extended mission that runs through late 2016.
NASA sent out the following media advisory Wednesday (May 15) afternoon.
NASA has scheduled a news telecon this afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT to discuss the status of the agency’s Kepler Space Telescope. I wanted to ensure you didn’t miss the opportunity to listen in and ask questions. Audio of the teleconference will also be streamed live on NASA’s website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, the Kepler space telescope is detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help us better understand our place in the galaxy.
- NASA News Teleconference
- Status of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope
- May 15, 2013, 4 p.m.EDT
- Panelists:
- John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Paul Hertz, astrophysics director, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator, Ames Research Center, Calif.
- Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager, Ames Research Center, Calif.
