Kepler and the search for other planets

I was down in Florida last week for the launch of Kepler, a space-based telescope which will hunt for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of stars like our sun. The satellite is currently cruising thousands of kilometres (1,155,000 km at the last count) behind our planet in an Earth-trailing solar orbit with it’s camera aimed squarely at the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. My colleagues at the BBC covered the launch here.

Blast off

I would have blogged about the launch at the time, but I ran into computer problems (my laptop took a fatal tumble). However, I wanted to put up a post anyway, as I managed to grab some pictures and audio that I was pretty pleased with and wanted to share.

The day of the launch I was lucky enough to get access to Pad 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. I spent some time walking around the pad as the crew finished their preparations and then watched the roll-back of the gantry. My pictures give you some sense of the occasion.

In the end I didn’t watch the launch of from the press site (a local journalist told me that I’d get a much better view from Jetty Park at the end of Cocoa Beach). It didn’t disappoint. We had an incredible view as the Delta II Rocket roared into the sky. Amongst the whooping and cheering from the crowd, I overheard one guy describe it as if “the sky was being torn in two”. I managed to record it, so now you can make up your own mind.

Listen to the audio of the Kepler Launch