Ok, so Kepler's getting funding and approval now.

[but my point is that the politics of science will not allow TPF to fly if we find that Earthlike planets are truly rare, i.e. likely ZERO within 50 LY.]

Oh, but, Phil, even if Kepler finds few discoveries and answers, it will have been worthwhile. Also do not forget that there's another mission due for launch long before TPF does (which can be a good thing):

SIM is scheduled for launch in 2009. That little mission will be busy besides hunting for exo-planets.

[Astrometric Gravitational Lensing Events:
SIM can exploit astrometric signatures created in a microlensing encounter to reconstruct the mass and kinematic properties of the lens - something not currently possible with the vast majority of photometric-only detections.]

I've been wondering about that lately. :)

Marcia