NASA to launch planet-hunting telescope Friday

[struggle4progress]

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A NASA telescope was cleared to launch on Friday on a mission to look for Earth-like planets around other stars and determine whether there are places that could support human-like life beyond our solar system.

Liftoff of the Kepler telescope is scheduled for 10:49 p.m. EST on Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"This is a historical mission," NASA's space science chief Ed Weiler told reporters on Thursday. "It really attacks some basic human questions that have been asked since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked, 'Are we alone?'"

Once in orbit, Kepler will be aimed at a star-rich swath of sky between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra in our own Milky Way galaxy. The telescope has two main tasks on its three-year mission: Stare at the stars and stay still ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5247B820090305

[eppur_se_muova]

1. CNN had a sexier headline -- "Spacecraft to search galaxy for life" or something like that ...

then they changed it.

[Bill McBlueState]

2. Looks like the launch went well

I've got an LBN thread about it here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3771993&mesg_id=3771993