NASA's Kepler Getting Pre-Launch Makeover At Canaveral

Back in May of 2008, NASA announced an opportunity for anyone to submit their name to be included on a DVD, which will be rocketed into space as part of NASA's Kepler Mission. The launch is now scheduled for March 5 2009 from launch pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a Delta II 7925 launch vehicle.

The Name in Space DVD was mounted onto the exterior of the spacecraft last November. The Name in Space is an international activity associated with the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in recognition of the 400th anniversary of Johannes Kepler's publication of his first two laws of planetary motion.

Kepler arrived at the Astrotech payload processing facility near Kennedy Space Center on January 6th. Work is under way to remove the spacecraft from the shipping container, with initial testing to start on the 9th of January. Launch preparations for the Delta II rocket continue on schedule at Pad 17-B. Loading the first stage with liquid oxygen as a leak check and to serve as a countdown demonstration and certification for the launch team is scheduled for January 19th. A flight simulation which exercises the electrical and mechanical systems of the rocket as they will operate after liftoff during flight will be conducted on January 20th. Leak checks of the first stage fuel system are complete, and the checkout of the guidance and vehicle control system was finished before the holidays, as planned.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. NASA Ames is the home organization of the science principal investigator and is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations, and science data analysis. Kepler mission development is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system.