Herschel Space Observatory
The satellite was successfully launched, along with the "Herschel Space Observatory", at 13:12:02 UTC on 14 May 2009 aboard an Ariane 5 ECA heavy launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Centre. The launch placed the craft into a very elliptical orbit (perigee: , apogee: more than ), bringing it near the Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun system, from the Earth.