NRL part of multi-national team that launches Herschel Space Observatory

		IMAGE: Herschel launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana together with Planck, a mission to map the cosmic microwave background in more spectral bands and with more sensitivity... Click here for more information.

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists are part of a team working on the Herschel Space Observatory, which was successfully launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) from French Guiana on May 14, 2009. Herschel is the first observatory to cover the full far-infrared to submillimeter spectral range (55 – 670 microns in wavelength / 0.5 – 5 terahertz in frequency) and it hosts a 3.5 meter diameter telescope, the largest single mirror telescope ever launched to space.