Kepler spacecraft arrives in Florida for launch preparations

NASA's Kepler spacecraft built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. arrived in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Wed., Jan 7. Kepler was shipped from Ball’s Fisher Complex spacecraft production facility in Boulder, Colorado to the Cape Canaveral Air Force station a few days earlier.

The planet-finding mission will begin its search for other Earths following liftoff on a Delta 2 booster in March.

More information and photos detailing Ball’s role in the Kepler mission can be found at http://www.ballaerospace.com/page.jsp?page=72

The full-size image included here can be found in the Kennedy Space Center's image archive at http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=38930.

Additional information about the Kepler mission can be found at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Kepler/kepler_index.cfm.