Kepler spacecraft is in emergency mode, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a statement. 
 
 Charlie Sobeck, Kepler and K2 mission manager at NASA's Ames Research Center announced that after a scheduled contact with mission operations engineers last April 7, it was discovered that Kepler is presently in emergency mode (EM), the spacecraft's lowest operational mode. 
 
 The team is working on recovering from EM, as it consumes significant amount of fuel. Since the spacecraft is 75 million miles away from Earth, even with the speed of light, communication takes about 13 minutes for the message to travel from the spacecraft and back. 
 
 For this, the spacecraft now has priority access to ground-based communication on NASA's Deep Space Network. 
 
 The spacecraft was fully operational and in good condition last April 4. 
 
 According to the mission engineers, the spacecraft entered into EM about 36 hours prior to maneuvering towards the center of the Milky Way. The extended mission's purpose is to continue planet hunting and provide study material for supernovae, young stars, and other astronomical objects using gravitational microlensing. 
 
 The agency said that they will provide further information about the spacecraft once it has more updates. 
 
 Launched in 2009, Kepler's primary mission was to look for planets outside the Solar System. The mission, which was completed in 2012, detected about 5,000 exoplanets, more than 1,000 of which were confirmed. 
 
 The team hopes to restore Kepler's operations back to normal as it did before. In July 2012, one of the gyroscopic reaction wheels that help aim the spacecraft failed. The second wheel failed in May 2013. The K2 mission began in 2014 and proceeded by using the sun's radiation pressure to orient the spacecraft. 
 
 "The chance for the K2 mission to use gravity to help us explore exoplanets is one of the most fantastic astronomical experiments of the decade," said Steve Howell, project scientist for NASA's Kepler and K2 mission. 
 
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 (CNN) NASA's Kepler spacecraft is in trouble -- far, far away. 
 
 The telescope that searches for habitable planets in outer space went into emergency mode 75 million miles away from home, leaving engineers scrambling. 
 
 Mission engineers discovered Kepler was in distress during a scheduled contact Thursday. In emergency mode, Kepler burns through its power supply faster, making recovering it a priority. 
 
 "Emergency mode is the lowest operational mode and is fuel intensive," NASA said. 
 
 Delayed response 
 
 Fixing the telescope is a challenge at such a far distance. Kepler's signals don't travel instantaneously, which slows down communication with ground command. 
 
 "Even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back," NASA said. 
 
 Earth's older cousin 
 
 Since NASA launched the Kepler telescope in 2009, it's been one busy spacecraft. 
 
 Its goal is to survey the Milky Way to determine how many stars in our galaxy might have habitable planets, according to NASA. 
 
 So many exoplanets 
 
 Exoplanets --- or planets orbiting other stars -- are a dime a dozen. But Kepler goes the extra mile to determine whether they are habitable. 
 
 
 
 Just last year, the Kepler mission confirmed a planet in the "habitable zone" around a sun-like star -- which NASA referred to as Earth's older cousin. 
 
 Two missions 
 
 During its first mission completed in 2012, Kepler detected nearly 5,000 exoplanets. More than 1,000 have been confirmed, according to NASA. 
 
 Two years ago, NASA began Kepler's second mission. 
 
 Under this mission, it searches for exoplanets and research opportunities to study young stars and other astronomical objects. 
 
 Kepler is not new at this trouble thing. In 2012, it lost one of its four wheels used for balancing the spacecraft.
– NASA's Kepler spacecraft is roughly 75 million miles from Houston and has a bit of a problem: The space agency says that its exoplanet-hunting craft is in emergency mode, a status engineers discovered Thursday, reports CNN. "Emergency mode is the lowest operational mode and is fuel intensive," per a NASA statement, and distance only complicates the task of trying to fix Kepler. "Even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back." NASA has declared an emergency, which gets priority access to communications on its Deep Space Network. Kepler was about to point toward the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, notes Tech Times; it was last reported functional on Monday.