Friday February 27th 2009. Launch -48 days.

Yet another big step towards a successful launch, which we now know will be at 13:16UT on April 16th: the first of the Herschel instruments has been certified ready for launch after its ground-testing in Kourou. This is definitely very good news. We have three, incredibly complex instruments that are made up by no less than twenty-two sub-instruments. What is more, they are at the limit of technology and the teams willingly admit that, two years earlier, they would have been impossible. To have all twenty-two working successfully in space would be a remarkable achievement. The instrument teams have done everything that they can in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK respectively to ensure that they are in perfect condition. This has been an incredibly tough task. Although the instruments left final testing in The Netherlands in a perfect state, there was always a danger that something might get damaged in transport: this could be something as simple as a loose connection finally failing.

 

Back at the ranch… Things went okay today. Once again, a number of people took the day off or left early in anticipation of three very tough weeks to come. As I had promised to get the Test Plan out for the Simulations Campaign before going home I was trying to tidy up and complete the document. This also meant going through the staff rosters for everyone for the two weeks of the campaign to work out who would be working when. Everything got put into a master table and added at the end of the document: that way we know who will be available each day of the test. The final document was compiled and sent out just before 7pm, allowing me to claim that it was available before the weekend. This allowed me to make a dash home on the bicycle before the light failed at dusk… riding home in daylight is a rare luxury in winter.

 

All in all it seems that people are getting increasingly confident that we are sorting out the remaining bugs in the systems and that things are going to work well. It is pure human nature to try to do a bit more than is actually possible in the available time; this is fine when everything works perfectly at the first attempt, but complex software rarely works perfectly first time – just ask Bill Gates!