A spacecraft with Colorado connections is scheduled for launch tonight from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder built the spacecraft and photometer for NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which has a 3 1/2-year mission to seek Earthlike planets.
The mission is part of a NASA effort to find and study planets where Earthlike conditions might exist.
Of the $591 million project, Ball’s share is $236 million. About 2,000 Ball employes spent more than 1.3 million lab hours working on Kep ler over five years.
The focal-point array for the photometer — an instrument that measures the properties of light — “is the most complex piece of equipment that Ball has ever built,” said Ball spokeswoman Roz Brown.
For Kepler, Ball built on work the company did on previous instruments for the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, Brown said.
Kepler has two launch opportunities today, between 10:49 p.m. and 11:16 p.m. EST. About two dozen Ball employees are on hand for the launch.
