ESA Awards Two Science Satellites to Alcatel Space

Alcatel Space Industries (France) was awarded the contract to build two European Space Agency (ESA) astronomy satellites, the Herschel Space Observatory and Planck Surveyor. The contract is valued at US$318 million (369 million Euros). Alcatel Space of France will be the prime contractor of both missions, with Astrium GmbH (Germany) and Alenia Spazio (Italy) serving as main contractors. The contract covers the activities of design, development, manufacture, test, launch and in-orbit commissioning of both satellites.

The Herschel Space Observatory and Planck Surveyor are scheudled for launch together on February 15, 2007 by an Ariane 5ESV. The spacecraft will separate after launch and proceed to different orbits around L2, located 1.5 million km away from Earth. Both spacecraft will be operated independently.

The Planck Surveyor will be used to study the origin and evolution of the Universe. Planck will carry a telescope with a primary mirror of 1.5 meter in size. The telescope will focus radiation from the sky onto the payload, two arrays of highly sensitive detectors called the Low Frequency Instrument and the High Frequency Instrument. They will measure the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation over the whole sky, searching for regions slightly warmer or colder than the average. Alcatel Space will be responsible for the Planck Payload Module development and the assembly and testing of the Planck spacecraft. Planck Surveyor is named after the German scientist Max Planck who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. The satellite has a mission life of 1.5 years, with a goal of 5 years. This project started in late 1996 under the name COBRAS/SAMBA, which was changed to Planck Surveyor after the mission was approved. (Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite and Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropies.)

The 3250 kg (7163 lbm) Herschel Space Observatory, formerly called FIRST (Far Infrared and Sub-millimeter Telescope), is an ESA Cornerstone mission. Herschel is a large imaging space telescope, with a primary mirror 3.5 m in diameter. It will study how the first stars and galaxies formed in the early Universe, more than 12 billion years ago. It is designed to provide imaging spectroscopy and photometry in the spectral range of 80-670 mm. It will be the first space observatory covering the full far-infrared and sub-millimeter waveband. Astrium GmbH will be responsible for the Herschel Payload Module development, as well as with the Herschel spacecraft assembly and testing. Herschel, is named after the British astronomer William Herschel, who discovered infrared light 200 years ago. The cryogen supply limits the planned lifetime of the spacecraft to 4.5 years.

Herschel is an observatory-class mission. One-third of the total observing time, Guaranteed Time, is reserved for the instrument and mission teams. The remaining two-thirds of the total observing time, Open Time, will be available to the astronomical community at large by the conventional procedure of proposal submission and peer review.

Alenia Spazio will be responsible for the Service Modules for both the Herschel and Planck spacecraft - where telecommunications and 'spacecraft housekeeping' components are located.

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