Successful Launch of ESA's Herschel and Planck 121
rgarbacz writes "Today at 13:12 GMT, the ESA launched successfully new and long-awaiting spacecraft: Herschel, the infrared telescope with a 3.5m mirror, and Planck, the CMB mapper. The spacecraft were carried by the Ariane-5, which lifted off from Kourou in French Guiana. They will stay in L2 to perform the research. This launch is one of the most expensive and important missions of the European Space Agency. Planck will measure the CMB with an accuracy more than 10 times better than the previous mission, WMAP. Because of this high sensitivity, both spacecraft are cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero by on-board liquid helium; staying in L2 is very helpful to maintain this state. Both spacecraft are designed to observe the Universe at its infancy: Herschel by observing the first stars and galaxies (whichever came first), and Planck by scrutinizing the first photons that were set free, making up the cosmic microwave background radiation."
with accuracy below 1% (Score:5, Funny)
What? (Score:2, Funny)
Accuracy below 1%? Did someone put a not gate in the wrong place?
telecope out on the range (Score:1, Funny)
Bout that telescope outside the second Lagrange point.
You know what I'm talkin' bout...
Re:L2? (Score:1, Funny)
Some sort of cache I think.
Re:FFS (Score:1, Funny)
It's never too late to fix bugs in the language.
Re:Happy launching (Score:5, Funny)
it's all about the pretty sparkle isnt it?
If I don't get new desktops by June I will NOT be happy...
Re:FFS (Score:5, Funny)
Plural of "spacecraft" is "spacecraft".
But the plural should be spacecreft!
Spacecruft?
Re:L2? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Free Software On Both (Score:4, Funny)
Nice site. Interesting project.
Its a good thing they didn't put (insert x86 architecture OS here) on them.
I can see the first message sent back containing the words "No keyboard present. Press F1 to continue." ... followed by a prolonged silence. ;)