About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Planck cruising at L2
Herschel and Planck were launched together on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 14 May 2009. The satellites were placed inside the fairing of the launcher; Planck at the bottom, Herschel on top.
After launch, they proceeded independently to different orbits around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, or L2. On reaching L2, Planck was injected into a Lissajous orbit (a kind of orbit that winds around a torus without closing onto itself) using the on-board thrusters. After exhausting its coolant, the spacecraft reached end of mission in October 2013.
On 9 October 2013, controllers commanded Planck to perform a lengthy, two-day manoeuvre to move away from the Sun–Earth Lagrange point and start a slow drift away from Earth.
On 23 October, around 12:00 GMT (14:00 CEST), the thrusters will again be switched on to burn the remaining fuel to depletion, an important aspect of rendering the spacecraft inert, as required by ESA’s space debris mitigation guidelines.
