The Kepler space observatory was held to be a long shot by many before it's launch. No telescope before it had been designed to look at so many stars on a continuous basis. Many thought It couldn't be done.
The explosion of new knowledge supplied by the Kepler space observatory has overwhelmed the scientific community and silenced any doubts.
The Kepler space observatory has proven to be an invaluable tool in the exploration of our universe. As such the recent failure of it's tracking system is a tremendous blow to science.
We should take what we have learned from the Kepler mission and build an improved version (or possibly two) of the Kepler space observatory as soon as possible so that we can get back to the job of discovery.