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![Blast off!]()
March 6: Spectators watch the launch of NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, from Cocoa Beach, Fla.![In Search of New Worlds]()
An artist's interpretation of the Kepler observatory in space.![The Honeycombed Primary Mirror]()
A technician inspects Kepler's lightweight, honeycomb-like primary mirror, which weighs only 14 percent that of a solid mirror of the same dimensions and is made out of ultra-low- expansion glass.![In Search of New Worlds]()
This image depicts the 3,000-ight-year-wide target area for NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft.![In Search of New Worlds]()
A technician inspects Kepler's imaging surface, an array of charge coupled devices (CCDs) similar to what's found in a digital camera.![In Search of New Worlds]()
Technicians working inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility near NASA's Kennedy Space Center look over the Kepler spacecraft soon after it arrived in Florida in preparation for launch.![In Search of New Worlds]()
Workers attach the two-part payload fairing over the Kepler space telescope as they prepare it for launch. The fairing will protect the spacecraft from friction and turbulence during launch, and jettison after it escapes the atmosphere.Kepler's Search for New Worlds
Kepler Space Telescope's mission: to find Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.
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- Kepler's Search for New Worlds
