Monday March 30^th 2009. Launch -?? days.

The plot thickens in the Herschel launch mystery. We were told confidently to expect an announcement today. The reason why no announcement had been made on Friday, we were told, was trivial. Well, no announcement has been made today and no information is forthcoming. This is beginning to get ominous. Up to now we have been told to expect an imminent announcement that launch will be on a certain date – in fact, that date has been widely publicised although we have been asked not to say what it is – and we were told that there was no reason to expect that date not to be met. Everything was geared-up for that date and time. It is obvious that whatever it is that is holding up the go-ahead is not as trivial or clear-cut as we had believed. What the problem might be, we have no idea. If anyone does know something, they are not telling and not even hints are coming out. It may be completely trivial, but naturally we are wondering what the hell is going on. The known problems that were around have largely been fixed and are now no impediment to launch.

Mind you, this kind of problem is not unknown. Spitzer, the NASA infrared telescope was actually on the launch pad for a January launch and only finally got sent up in July. Sigh! ESA is committed to making an announcement “by the end of March”: that’s tomorrow.