Overview
Pioneering Exoplanet Discoveries
Launched in March 2009, Kepler set out on an exoplanet-hunting mission to help us answer the centuries-old question, Are we alone? By surveying more than 150,000 stars in one region of our Milky Way galaxy and looking for slight dips in light observed when a planet passes in front of its star during its orbit, Kepler has discovered:
- Over 3,600 planetary candidates
- Over 700 multi-planet systems
- The first small planet in the habitable zone (Kepler—22b)
- Three Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around their stars
- The smallest exoplanets ever detected (KOI-961.01, KOO-961.02, KOI-961.03)
- Five worlds that orbit around two stars, establishing a new class of planetary system
Based on Kepler’s findings, scientists have determined that solar systems like ours, with one or multiple planets orbiting around a sun, are more common than we ever thought. The mission’s research helped pave the way for future missions like the James Webb Space Telescope.
Click this link to learn more about the Kepler/K2 mission on the NASA website.
The K2 Mission
After completing its primary mission, Kepler’s operations were suspended due to a reaction wheel failure, but that didn’t stop Kepler. Our engineers and the rest of the Kepler team developed a new mission for the Kepler spacecraft, dubbed K2. The mission used an innovative way to control pointing in the spacecraft by managing solar pressure and using thrusters. The K2 mission provided an opportunity to continue Kepler’s ground-breaking discoveries in the field of exoplanets and expand its role into new astrophysical observations.
K2 performed a series of 80-day campaigns to conduct research into planet formation, young stars, stellar structure, evolution and extragalactic science. K2 lasted as long as the first mission and increased Kepler's count of surveyed stars to more than 500,000.
In October 2018, NASA decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
What We Did
As mission prime contractor, we built the spacecraft and photometer and were responsible for system integration, testing and on-orbit operations.
In 2014, we were recognized for our role in confirming the age-old hope that planets and planetary systems are ubiquitous in the universe. The Kepler Mission Team was awarded the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Trophy for aerospace science and technology.
In 2018, the Flight Planning Center at BAE Systems received a NASA Group Achievement Award for the execution of this innovative solution. The team's work enabled the Kepler spacecraft to return valuable scientific data long after its projected mission lifetime.