Time line del lancio di Herschel e Planck   About 0.5 hours after launch, Herschel separates from the launcher upper stage (a couple of minutes before Planck) and starts its cruise to L2 (the second Lagrangian point), situated at about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.   An Ariane 5 will carry Herschel and Planck into space. About 30 minutes after launch. The launcher's solid rocket boosters will separate from the upper stage approximately 2.5 minutes after launch, and the fairing will come off about 4 minutes after launch. Following this first Herschel, and then Planck, will separate from the upper stage.   This animation shows the Herschel spacecraft leaving Earth and heading towards its operational orbit around the 2nd Lagrangian Point (L2). L2 is a virtual point in space situated at 1.5 million kilometres from Earth (about four times the distance between Earth and the Moon), in the opposite direction to the Sun. Herschel will orbit L2 at an average distance of about 800 000 km; a minimum of three years of routine science operations are foreseen.   This artist's concept shows the path of Planck to its operational orbit around the second Lagrangian point in space (L2), 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth. Release date: 15 Maggio 2009