Herschel and Planck flight dynamics: It really is rocket science   Vicente Companys, left, points to a data screen, while Gottlob Gienger, second from left, and colleagues brainstorm the solution to a tricky situation. Photo taken 19 February 2009 in the Flight Dynamics Room (FDR) at ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, during simulation training for the dual launch of Herschel-Plank, scheduled for 14 May 2009.   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.   Photo taken 19 February 2009 in the Flight Dynamics Room (FDR) at ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, during simulation training for the dual launch of Herschel-Plank, scheduled for 14 May 2009. Who's Lagrange? And what's L2?     This is an illustration of the L2 point showing the distance between the L2 and the Sun, compared to the distance between Earth and the Sun.   Photo taken 19 February 2009 in the Flight Dynamics Room (FDR) at ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, during simulation training for the dual launch of Herschel-Plank, scheduled for 14 May 2009. Release date: 11 May 2009