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August 13, 2009 – Planck Collecting Data
Planck Sees Light Billions of Years Old Full story... 
Simulated cosmic microwave background data. (Image Credit: ESA)
May 14, 2009 – JPL News Release Herschel and Planck on Way to Study Our Cosmic Roots Full story... 
The Herschel and Planck spacecraft launched on May 14, 2009, from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. (Photos: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG)
May 5, 2009 – JPL News Release Two missions to study the cosmos, Herschel and Planck, are scheduled to blast into space May 14 aboard the same Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Full story... April 28, 2009 – New Launch Date Set Arianespace and ESA have agreed on a new launch date of May 14, 2009 for Planck and Herschel. The launch had been postponed for several days to allow for additional tests. More information... April 20, 2009 – Planck Launch Delayed Due to an anomaly discovered during pre-launch tests, Arianespace has decided to delay the May 6, 2009 launch of Planck and Herschel. A new launch date will be announced soon. More information... April 8, 2009 – Planck Launch Date Set ESA and Arianespace have agreed on a new launch date for Planck and Herschel. The decision was made to delay the original launch date of April 16, in order to perform additional checks of the Herschel telescope. With the flight-worthiness of the telescope confirmed, the launch will proceed on May 6, 2009. More information... 
An Ariane 5 ECA launched on August 14, 2008. (Photo: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Photo Optique Video CSG)
February 23, 2009 – Planck Arrives at Launch Pad The Planck spacecraft has arrived at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana, where it is scheduled to be launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket on April 16. The spacecraft arrived from Belgium via an Antonov An-124 cargo plane on February 19. It will be launched together with the Herschel spacecraft, though the two missions will separate shortly after launch and operate independently from each other. 
The Planck spacecraft in its transport container, loaded inside the Antonov cargo plane
at Liège airport, Belgium, in preparation for a flight to Rochambeau airport, French Guiana.
(Image credit: ESA/Thales)
After arrival at Rochambeau airport, the transport container carrying the Planck spacecraft
was loaded onto a truck for transport to Centre Spatial Guyanais. (Image credit: ESA/Thales)
The Planck spacecraft - looking into the telescope enclosure (Image credit: ESA/Thales)
Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA. NASA's Planck Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments. U.S. and European Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data. Links: |
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