Herchel and Planck, launch configuration

Herschel will launch on an Ariane-5 rocket from the Guyana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guyana, in July 2008. It will be part of a shared launch, along with ESA's Planck spacecraft. The two vehicles will separate shortly after launch and proceed independently to different orbits around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L2). The Ariane-5 will burn its solid boosters for slightly less than 2.5 minutes and its main and upper stage engines for about 25 minutes to inject Herschel and then Planck into transfer trajectories bound for L2.