Watch a video replay of NASA’s exoplanet announcement

As Japanese ground controllers struggle to restore communications with a tumbling space telescope in orbit, the U.S. military’s space surveillance experts have eliminated one cause for the satellite’s troubles.

NASA officials expect to officially kick off development in February of a multibillion-dollar observatory recycling a grounded top secret spy satellite telescope capable of studying dark energy and directly resolving planets around other stars.

Watch the launch of a commercial Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station, as seen live on NASA Television.