Goodnight Kepler! NASA scientists lay the exoplanet expert to rest as it finally runs out of fuel
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/30/goodnight_kepler_nasa_scientists_lay_the_exoplanet_expert_to_rest_as_it_finally_runs_out_of_fuel/
The Kepler spacecraft has coughed up its last reserves of fuel and is now retired, after helping scientists discover thousands of exoplanets for nearly a decade, NASA announced on Tuesday.
“Fuel exhaustion means it has reached the end of its space life,” Charlie Sobeck, a project system engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said during a teleconference call. There were clear indications that the telescope was on its way out in late June as scientists could no longer accurately measure the amount left.