Follow the Herschel and Planck missions online
Herschel, ESA’s infrared space observatory, and Planck, ESA’s mission that will look back to the very dawn of time, are scheduled for launch on 14 May 2009 from ESA’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Follow Herschel and Planck on our mission websites.
Herschel will carry the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space. A pioneering mission to study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies, it will help understand how the Universe came to be what it is today.
Planck will be the first European space observatory whose main goal is the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang. The spacecraft will measure the fluctuations of the CMB with an accuracy set by fundamental astrophysical limits.
