The Eddington mission was a European Space Agency (ESA) project that planned to search for Earth-like planets, but was cancelled in 2003.[1] It was named for the noted astronomer Arthur Eddington, who formulated much of the modern theory of stellar atmospheres and stellar structure, popularized Albert Einstein's work in the English language, carried out the first test (gravitational lensing) of the general theory of relativity, and made original contributions to the theory.[2] It was originally planned for operation in 2008, but was delayed. The ESA website now records its status as cancelled.[3]