NASA might have jinxed itself last month after it declared its Kepler spacecraft's extended mission a "smashing success" that rarely encountered any difficulties.
The last regular contact with Kepler was on April 4, and it was operating as expected. Mission manager Charlie Sobeck said his team's top priority is now figuring out why the spacecraft is in emergency mode, but it won't be easy — Kepler is nearly 75 million miles away from Earth, and even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to Kepler and back.
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