NASA’s Kepler telescope is down, but not completely out. A series of technical and possible structural failures have rendered the telescope unusable for the time being. An investigation into attempted fixes for the crippled space telescope is ongoing. Launched in 2009, the mission was scheduled for 3.5 years and has already surpassed that benchmark. There’s never a space shuttle around when you need some repair work done. 
Kepler is able to look out in certain directions thanks to four reaction wheels that are used to point the spacecraft. As of Wednesday, two out of four reaction wheels have failed.
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