'Up Against a Wall': What 1986 Might Have Been

By Ben Evans, on February 8th, 2015

The infamous image, flashed around the world on 28 January 1986, immediately after Challenger’s tragic destruction. The disaster stalled the shuttle program for almost three years and all crews, including the other missions planned for 1986, were stood down. Photo Credit: NASA

On three occasions in NASA’s history, the dawn of February has […]

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Kepler Recovery Efforts Conclude, Other Missions Mulled

By Jason Rhian, on August 16th, 2013

Image Credit: NASA

After several months’ worth of review and testing, the team operating the Kepler Space Telescope has opted to close its efforts to make Kepler fully operational again. This follows the loss of one of the crucial components that controls the alien planet-hunting spacecraft. In an Aug. 15 teleconference, Charles Sobeck, […]

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What Comes After Kepler?

By David Darling, on May 22nd, 2013

The Kepler Space Telescope has had another of its reastion wheels fail, meaning the spacecraft’s mission of finding Earth-like worlds is probably over. Image Credit: NASA

Launched on March 7, 2009, NASA’s Kepler space telescope, designed to hunt for Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars, has proved to be an outstanding success and has […]

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Reaction Wheel Failure Places Kepler Mission in Jeopardy

By Jason Rhian, on May 17th, 2013

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA announced May 15 that a second reaction wheel on the Kepler spacecraft has failed. This is forcing officials at the space agency to reconsider what mission that space-based telescope is now capable of conducting. Kepler went into safe mode Tuesday. When controllers went about recovering Kepler, they discovered that […]

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Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Best Candidates for Habitable Worlds Outside Our Solar System

By Jason Rhian, on April 18th, 2013

This diagram shows the worlds discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62 compared with the terrestrial planets in our own solar system. Two worlds have been discovered in this and the Kepler-69 system which exist in the so-called habitable zone. Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered two planetary systems that have worlds […]

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