Looking down on Planck inside the faring.
Image credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace
SYLDA being lowered over Planck.
Image credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace
With just one week to go, preparations for launch are well advanced. The press coverage is also starting to build up for Planck (e.g. another Newscientist article), bringing it to the fore alongside its heavyweight sister-mission Herschel.
Over in Kourou, Planck is inside the Ariane 5 faring, see below with the “SYLDA” (a French acronym for Système de Lancement Double Ariane) being lowered down to support Herschel when it is also lowered on.
Arianespace have also prepared a “Launch Kit” which gives the vital statistics of the Ariane 5 rocket and it valuable payload – ther are some really big numbers in there!