Announcement • January 20, 2010
ESA’s Herschel observatory is back to full operation following the reactivation of its HIFI instrument. HIFI, having been offline for 160 days while engineers investigated an unexpected problem in the electronic system, is now perfectly placed to resume its study of forming stars and planets.
Announcement • September 5, 2009
On August 3, 2009, Herschel's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared, or HIFI, was switched off temporarily after an anomaly was registered.
Announcement • August 17, 2009
Engineers and scientists are continuing to characterize the performance of the Herschel Space Observatory, following its successful launch on May 14, 2009.
Announcement • June 15, 2009
The Herschel observatory has flipped its lid — the cover protecting the telescope's instruments was successfully removed on June 14, 2009, at 2:54 a.m. Pacific Time.
Announcement • June 10, 2009
Herschel is approaching its final orbit around the 2nd Earth-sun Lagrange point (L2), a point in space 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth on the side away from the sun.
