Countdown to NASA search for Earth-like planets

Hopefully this one does not fail like the last one did !

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The U.S. space agency NASA will launch its first ever mission Friday to find Earth-like planets in our region of the Milky Way.
Scientists will be holding their breath as the Kepler spacecraft -- mounted with the biggest telescope ever to be launched into space -- lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"Everything about the mission is optimized to find Earth-size planets with the potential for life, to help us answer the question -- are Earths bountiful or is our planet unique?," said the man leading the mission, Bill Borucki, science principal investigator for the mission at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Scientists will be hoping for more success than last week when NASA's $273 million dollar Orbiting Carbon Observatory failed to reach orbit and plunged into the ocean within minutes of its launch.
The Kepler spacecraft has just two three-minute windows of opportunity to blast off on Friday, from 10.49pm to 10.52pm EST, or slightly later at 11.13 to 11.16pm EST.

If the launch goes to plan, Kepler will spend the next three and a half years monitoring more than 100,000 stars in a single patch of star-rich sky in "our region of the Milky Way galaxy," near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations.

Its activities will be restricted to the "habitable zone," where scientists think there's the best chance of finding life.

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