KSC-08pd3465

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a worker makes adjustments on one of the solid rocket boosters being mated to the first stage of the Delta 2 launch vehicle that will carry the Kepler spacecraft into orbit. The Kepler mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than March 5, 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Date: 2008-10-30
Collection: KSC
Archive: NASA Image and Video Library
Type: photograph