Today [purplecthulhu]

Today we launched Herschel and Planck.

It's easy to say. The two satellites are now on their way to L2 after what was, as far as I could tell, a picture perfect launch.

Today we launched Herschel and Planck.

But it's not so easy to understand. I've worked on these projects for the last 8 years. I've been aware of them in development for nearly 20 years.

But today we launched Herschel and Planck.

Until now they've been intellectual ideas, problems to sort out, puzzles to solve. How would we work with the data, what might we see.

And today we launched Herschel and Planck.

We celebrated. Wee watched the video, we drank champaign, we ate cake, we drank the wine.

Because today we launched Herschel and Planck.

And yet, coming home tonight. far later than I should, far drunker than I should I still didn't realize what we had done.

Then I looked up, through the cloudy, London sky, the yellow glowing backsides of clouds glaring back at me. And I knew they were there, on the dark side of the Earth, heading towards L2 to start telling us about the universe. Then, even though I hadn't seen anything, I'd just looked up, it began to feel just a little bit real.

Because today we launched Herschel and Planck.

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Today you launched Herschel and Planck.

Thank you. And YAYYYYYYYY!!!!

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I second the motion!

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Thanks!

And I hopefully now have the source material starting for my talk at Worldcon. So nice of ESA to help :-)

thirded!

Thanks!

Please send booze :-)

Just had to say what a fab icon that is!

THAT is AWESOME. We've been talking about it here.

Thank you for launching them. This is something of which to be very proud.

Thanks! But I still don't really believe it, though everyone sending congratulations does help to tell me that we really have done this thing!

Congratulations - a really great achievement! Must be an odd feeling to have such a long-term project finally reach its goal.

The End of the Beginning, eh.

Congratulations!! It must be a wonderful feeling!

Many congratulations! May I link to this lovely post?

Thanks - please do!

That is so incredibly cool. Congratulations, and thank you.

Congratulations and thank you.

(And a sense of enormous relief that they made it up there.)

Congratulations on a successful launch!

Many, many congratulations!

Now done in the best Flanders and Swann style :-)

Congratulations to the whole team.

Congratulations!

And I hope the head isn't too sore by the time you read this :-)

Still a bit sore, I must admit...

sounds like your babies have fledged and left the nest... off to fly around the stars

what a fantastic achievement!
x

Well - around the little fragments of space rock, but ... yeah ...

Great news! I watched the launch and got all excited. have fun with your new toys.

It's pretty impressive, although i don't really have a grasp of what it means. Especially since someone filled my brain with cotton wool.

Congratulations! Have a rocket=shaped badge :)

I can be a real rocket scientist now!

Of course you can. ;)

This is just brilliant. Well done, the lot of you. I'm so pleased it went well - worth a hangover, I should think!

Herschel and Planck. It has a certain ring.

Got up. Checked news. Cheered! HOORAY!!!!!!

hey

today you launched Herschel and Planck!

Excellent, no, EXCELLENT news. Well done to you and everyone who worked so hard to make these missions reality.

I'm looking forward to some really amazing science, but sleep off the hangover first!

Yay! Reading this post is making me very happy. And lookit, my squee icon is space exploration themed already. Congratulations!

Your stuff is in space. That is indescribably cool. Congrats!

One of the nice things about Livejournal is that I'm writing an SF RPG and there's someone here who's living the real thing. You must keep us informed of your babies' progress...

Woot!

Earth's L2 isn't a proper "gravity well", it's more a sort of shallow saddle... Will significant amounts of fuel be required for station-keeping and, if so, is that a constraint on mission duration?

Thanks!

Indeed, some fuel will be needed, but not very much as not much delta-v is needed to stay around L2 (which is one of the reasons it was chosen). The main constraint on mission duration for both satellites is the cooling systems As both, while very different, use up their liquid helium supplies over time. Fuel is a very secondary issue.

Congratulations!

Thanks!

Hee. I was so pleased that it all went so well - and hadn't realised that I even knew anyone who knew anyone involved, until half my f-list was saying so and whooping on your behalf. So congratulations!

That's wonderful! :)

Woot! And we expect great things from them, if only in the fiction they inspire... you ARE writing, right?

Thanks!

Writing a bit, but there are a lot of distractions at the moment. Plotting and noodling continues, of course :-)

I'm so glad that it finally all came together. Congratulation! :))

pjt

Thanks!!

We still have to see what the bumping around of launch has done to the instruments, but this was a huge step in the right direction!

I'm so glad the launch went well (I'm 3 days behind on my LJ as usual, but at least you should have got over the well-deserved hangover by now).

Got rid of the alcohol one and now have a jet lag one as I've just flown to Kyoto for a conference!