Herschel Space Observatory (European Space Agency)

Updated May 8, 2019 | Infoplease Staff

Destination: Earth's magnetosphere. Launch: 2007. Mission: To study how the first stars and galaxies were formed and to search for water in space. Formerly called the Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope (FIRST), Herschel will be equipped with an infrared telescope, a high-resolution spectrograph, and two infrared cameras. Construction of the observatory began in the spring of 2002.