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06-03-09 Kepler ready for launch

NASA’s Kepler mission to seek out other Earth-like planets is on the launch pad and ready for liftoff from Cape Canaveral tonight.Kepler’s goal is to seek out the first Earth-sized planets orbiting stars in habitable zones,where liquid water could prevail on their surfaces.Of the 342 extrasolar planets discovered to date,the majority are gas giants,with very few rocky planets,let alone Earth-sized planets.“This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself:are other planets like ours out there?” says Ed Weiler,associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.“It’s not just a science question,it’s a basic human question.” The spacecraft will launch on a Delta II rocket,and after sixty-two minutes will separate from the rocket and arrive in its final Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun,an orbit similar to that of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.After a commissioning period of roughly two months,Kepler will begin its three and a half year job of surveying over 100,000 stars in the region of sky near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations,using its 95 megapixel camera