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At 9:12 a.m. EDT on May 14, the European Space Agency launched an Ariane 5 rocket carrying two new observatories: The Planck mission, which will scan the cosmic microwave background in unprecedented detail; and an infrared telescope called Herschel that will examine the faint emissions from objects at the edge of the solar system as well as galaxies billions of light-years from Earth. Just under 40 minutes later, both missions sent their first radio signals back to Earth, confirming that they had successfully separated from the rocket.

It will take Herschel about two months to reach its final orbit around the sun. Four months later, the science mission will begin and is expected to last at least 3½ years. Planck will reach a similar orbit in roughly two months, with science observations beginning one month later. The mission's science operations are scheduled to last a minimum of 15 months.