The data collecting phase of the Kepler Mission ended in 2013 with the failure of a second reaction wheel that prevented aiming the telescope at it's target field in the Cygnus-Lyra area of the sky (see Mission Manager updates for July 3 and August 19, 2013). Kepler scientists and engineers then devised a ingenious way to accurately point the telescope to areas of the sky along the ecliptic (in the plane of Earth's orbit) leading to the K2 Mission. See Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work. |
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