22 Dec 2005 11:27

It will be located 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth at the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system. Herschel's three and a half metre mirror will collect the light from distant and poorly known objects, such as newborn galaxies thousands of millions of light-years away, and will focus it onto three instruments with detectors kept at temperatures close to absolute zero.

Currently at the European Space Research And Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands, the assembly of the Herschel Structural and Thermal Qualification model satellite is nearing completion with its two main modules, the payload module and the service module, already mated together.

The Herschel sunshield/sunshade structure, which also carries the solar array, is being installed before the assembled satellite undergoes mechanical vibration and shock tests to complete the environmental qualification campaign. This test is to ensure the satellite can cope with the vibrations experienced during launch by the Ariane V launcher.