CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — To astronomers’ relief, NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has won another reprieve.

The spacecraft — responsible for detecting thousands of planets beyond our solar system — slipped into emergency mode last week nearly 75 million miles from Earth. Ground controllers managed to stabilize the spacecraft Sunday, and NASA announced the good news Monday.

Engineers still don’t know what went wrong and will study incoming data for clues. They also want to be certain the spacecraft is healthy enough to resume observations.

The trouble occurred right before Kepler was to be pointed toward the center of the Milky Way for a new kind of planet-searching campaign.

Associated Press