Kepler engineering rendition

It's one of the oldest questions confronting humankind: Is there life out there beyond the confines of planet Earth? NASA hopes to get some answers from its Kepler spacecraft, which is set to launch Friday evening on a mission into the Milky Way.

Kepler will be in search of orbs like Earth: "rocky planets that orbit sun-like stars in a warm zone where liquid water could be maintained on the surface," according to NASA. In other words, it's looking for places where life might be possible.