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It is a truly surprising and rewarding turn for a spaceship that most of us had canceled. At Engadget, we wrote two separate articles "It's the end for Kepler," one from March and the other from July, when Kepler was asleep to preserve the little remaining fuel . In early August, Kepler had to reorient itself to transmit data to the Earth. The team was not even sure that there would be enough fuel for this maneuver. Yet the spaceship still refuses to leave and continues to do its regular work. This is quite the feat.
The spacecraft is currently conducting the 19th observation campaign of its nine-year mission (initially scheduled for three and a half years). One of the thrusters apparently behaves erratically, so that the ability of the telescope to point is hampered. Yet, spacecraft soldiers are doing their duty.
Kepler will eventually die. But despite multiple failures, the spacecraft is struggling to keep going. NASA clearly builds its spaceship and vehicles to last; Hopefully the Opportunity rover, which the Jet Propulsion Laboratory team expects after a dust storm on a global scale, is able to accomplish the same feat.
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