Watch Herschel/Planck Launch Live

Ariane V with the Herschel and Planck spacecraft ready to launch. Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG

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The launch of the Herschel and Planck spacecraft is scheduled for 13:12 GMT (9:12 EDT) this morning (Thursday). You can watch it live, starting at 12:40 GMT (8:40 EDT) at this link.

The two spacecraft are launching together in what was originally a cost saving move, but the complexity of preparing two spacecraft at once has caused frequent delays and cost overruns. However, now that launch day is here, hopefully the cutting-edge technologies included in both spacecraft will soon pay off in new discoveries astronomy and cosmology. Read more about the two spacecraft here.

Also, Robert Simpson at Orbiting Frog has some interactive features that show the altitude, velocity and acceleration of the Ariane rocket as it progress through the air into space. You can even click and drag to zoom in on a section of these charts, and move your mouse around inside them to get more information.

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And the first of five spacewalks for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission starts at around 9:00 am EDT, and will be pretty much an all-day event. Watch live on NASA TV.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/