ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Press Release No. 08-2009
Paris, France 7 May 2009

ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time

Two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecraft ever built -- Herschel
and Planck -- will be launched by ESA this month towards deep space orbits
around a special observation point beyond the Moon's orbit.

From there, both spacecraft will begin a revolutionary observation campaign
that will further our understanding of the history of the Universe.

Herschel is a large far-infrared space telescope designed to study some of
the coldest objects in space, in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum
still mostly unexplored. Planck is a telescope that will map the fossil
light of the Universe -- light from the Big Bang -- with unprecedented
sensitivity and accuracy. The two missions are among the most ambitious ever
carried out by Europe and mark the crossing of new frontiers in the field of
space-based astronomy.

The pair will be lofted in tandem by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher. Lift-off is
now scheduled for 15:12 CEST (13:12 GMT) on Thursday 14 May, from Europe's
Spaceport in French Guiana. Herschel and Planck will separate shortly after
launch and head independently towards the L2 Lagrangian point of the
Sun-Earth system, a gravitational stability point suspended in space some
1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the opposite direction to the Sun.
While orbiting around that point, they will be able to conduct continuous
observations in a thermally-stable environment, far from radiation
disturbance caused by the Sun, Earth and Moon.

The 7.5-m-tall, 4-m-wide Herschel is the largest infrared telescope ever
launched. The extremely smooth surface of its 3.5-m-diameter primary mirror
-- made of lightweight silicon carbide -- is almost one and a half times
bigger than that of Hubble's, and six times bigger than that of its
predecessor ISO launched by ESA in 1995.

With its huge light-collection capability and set of sophisticated detectors
cooled to the vicinity of absolute zero by over 2000 litres of superfluid
helium, Herschel will look at the faintest and farthest infrared sources and
peer into the as-yet uncharted far infrared and submillimetric parts of the
spectrum.

Herschel will be able to see through the opacity of cosmic dust and gas and
observe structures and events far away that date back to the early Universe
-- such as the birth and evolution of early stars and galaxies -- ten
thousand million years ago, in an effort to determine exactly how it all
started. Closer by, within our galaxy, Herschel will also observe extremely
cold objects, such as the clouds of dust and interstellar gases from which
stars and planets are formed, and even the atmosphere around comets, planets
and their moons in our own solar system.

Featuring a 1.5 m telescope and instruments sensitive to microwave
radiation, Planck will measure temperature variations in the very early
Universe. It will monitor the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background, the
relic of the very first light ever emitted in space about 380 thousand years
after the Big Bang, when the density and temperature of the young Universe
had decreased enough to finally allow light to separate from matter and
travel freely in space.

With its 'heart' operating at unprecedented low temperatures, Planck will
deliver unrivalled sensitivity and resolution. By measuring the tiny
fluctuations in the temperature of the microwave background radiation,
scientists will extract at least 15 times more information about the
Universe's origin, evolution and future than with its most recent
predecessor.

Herschel's detectors will be cooled down to 0.3 degrees above absolute zero.
Planck's detectors will reach even colder temperatures, just 0.1 degrees
above 0 K. Indeed, throughout the mission, the coldest points of the
Universe may well be inside its payload. The satellite is planned to take
some 500 thousand million of raw samples to produce a set of
multi-million-pixel sky maps that will also help scientists to understand
the Universe's structure and account as never before for all of its
constituents. Planck will be able to determine the total amount of atoms in
the Universe, infer the total density of dark matter -- an elusive component
still inaccessible to direct observations but 'visible' through its effects
on the surroundings -- and even shed new light on the nature of the
mysterious dark energy.

Herschel and Planck, two impressive missions designed to revolutionise our
understanding of the cosmos, also represent a tremendous technological
challenge that has been overcome by ESA thanks to the mobilising of over 100
industrial partners and institutes in Europe, the United States and
elsewhere.

Attending the launch

The main launch event for Herschel/Planck will be held at ESOC, the Agency's
establishment in Darmstadt, Germany. There, ESA senior management and
programme specialists will be on hand to give explanations and interviews.

The Press Centre at ESOC will be open from 10:00 to 18:00 hours, hosting a
media workshop from 11:00 to 12:15 hours and the launch event from 14:00 to
16:15 hours.

A live TV transmission of the launch will supply images from Kourou and from
mission control at ESOC/Darmstadt to broadcasters (further details will soon
be available at http://television.esa.int).

The general public can also follow the launch video transmission via
web-streaming at:
http://www.esa.int

Media representatives wishing to follow the event at ESOC or watch the
launch live from another ESA establishment are requested to fill in the
attached accreditation form (linked from the right menu on this page) and
fax it back to the venue of their choice.

Note for editors

Herschel and Planck under ESA's Science Programme

Herschel and Planck are the last missions to be launched under ESA's Horizon
2000 long-term plan for space science initiated in 1985, which has already
brought the worldwide scientific community a series of trail-blazing
successes including: the Integral gamma-ray and XMM-Newton X-ray
observatories; the Huygens probe that landed on Saturn's largest moon,
Titan; the Ulysses, Soho and Cluster missions monitoring the Sun, its sphere
of influence and Sun-Earth interaction; the Smart-1, Mars Express and Venus
Express lunar and planetary explorers; and the Rosetta comet chaser
currently mid-way to its final target, the nucleus of comet
Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Over the past 25 years, the Horizon 2000 plan and its
successors Horizon 2000+ and Cosmic Vision, have set the standard for
successful space science in Europe and laid the foundations for the future
scientific exploration of space, giving Europe international stature when it
comes to cooperation.

Herschel and Planck -- the result of a huge international effort

Herschel and Planck were developed under a common engineering programme by
an industrial team led by Thales Alenia Space France and providing the
Planck payload module, with Astrium Germany providing the Herschel payload
module and Thales Alenia Space Italy providing the service module of the two
satellites. Astrium Toulouse manufactured the Herschel telescope while the
Planck telescope, manufactured by Astrium Germany, was provided ESA and the
Danish National Space Centre (Denmark), with the Danish part funded by the
Danish Natural Science Research Council.

Large academic and industrial consortia from across the world have designed
and manufactured Herschel and Planck's instruments under national funding.

Herschel features three instruments: the HIFI high-resolution spectrometer,
led by the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, with major funding
from SRON (Netherlands), DLR (Germany), NASA (US), CNES and CNRS (France);
the PACS camera and imaging spectrometer, led by the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics (Germany), with major funding from DLR and MPG
(Germany), BELSPO/PRODEX (Belgium), CNES and CEA (France), ASI (Italy),
Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Spain), and the Ministry of Science and
Research (Austria); and the SPIRE camera and imaging spectrometer, led by
the Cardiff University (United Kingdom), with major funding from STFC (UK),
CNES, CEA and CNRS (France), NASA (USA), and other contributions such as
those from ASI (Italy), CSA (Canada), Ministerio de Educaci y Ciencia
(Spain), Stockholm Observatory (Sweden), and the National Astronomical
Observatories (China).

Planck features two science instruments: the HFI high-frequency instrument,
led by the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (France), with the main funding
from CNES and CNRS (France), important contribution from NASA (USA), and
participation by STFC (United Kingdom), as well as CSA (Canada), DLR
(Germany), ESA, Italy, Ireland and Spain; and the LFI low-frequency
instrument, led by the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica
(Italy), with main funding from ASI (Italy), NASA (USA), plus contributions
from Tekes and Millilab (Finland), STFC and Jodrell Bank (United Kingdom),
the INTA Spanish Space Agency, IAC and University of Santander (Spain), and
other contributions from Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and ESA.