Monday February 16th 2009. Launch -59 days.

At some point mid-afternoon tomorrow Herschel will pass an important, but unheralded landmark in its launch countdown: it will be less than 5 million seconds to launch. I owe this gem to the same tall, patrician gentleman who has been regaling me with Sooty pictures and videos! Spirits are high, buoyed by the successful end to the tests and the realisation that we have 3 weeks before the next lot start, so we can actually spend some time fixing problems. One plus in the team is that we have two really superb top managers and it really does make a difference to how we work. However, the fact that it has stopped raining and is not quite so dark all the time also helps raise our spirits in general: our reformed banker has even decided to leave his car in the garage and use the bicycle again because he no longer fears death by hypothermia or drowning on the way to and from work.

 

Another landmark is that the first of the instrument teams is being dispatched to Kourou to do final launch tests on Herschel. For them this is a great occasion and a singular honour – Kourou defends her gates jealously – albeit slightly reduced by the need to be vaccinated against such things as yellow fever and to take anti-malaria pills. Go into the jungle – this is, after all, the land made famous by Papillon and you have to take a lot more things too. Mind you, that is probably some envy speaking… I’d happily have a yellow fever jab for the chance to go there.