Space-watchers saw the handwriting on the wall months ago, but now it’s official: NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, by far the most successful planet-hunting telescope in history, isn’t coming back. Engineers ...

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, has survived an extreme temperature test. The thermal vacuum test is part of a series of environmental tests ...

AMES, Iowa – An international team of astronomers has used nearly three years of high precision data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft to make the first observations of a planet outside our solar system ...

Mission managers say they expect Kepler to run out of fuel in the next few months, putting an end to nearly a decade of planet-spotting. Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X (opens in ...

NASA’s Kepler planet-finding mission has successfully completed thermal-vacuum testing in preparation for its launch next year, NASA announced Sept. 23. The test took place at manufacturer Ball ...

Astronomers poring over four years of data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft have discovered a star that’s 11.2 billion years old and has at least five Earth-size planets. “We thus show that Earth-size ...