2009 is a fortunate year for ESA´s Operation Centre in Darmstadt. In the last four months three satellites have been successfully launched and are now doing their job in space.

Many LSE engineers are taking part in GOCE, Herschel and Planck, providing their contribution to their successful results and giving support in all main phases: preparation, launch, LEOP, commissioning and routine.

Launched from the Russian base in Plesetsk on March 17^th, GOCE’s mission is to measure Earth's gravity field with unprecedented accuracy. Thanks to its slim aerodynamic profile and its electric ion propulsion system coupled with the linear and angular accelerations measured by the Electrostatic Gravity Gradiometer, it is kept ultra-stable in drag-free conditions at an orbital altitude of just 250 km, which is a big technological achievement.

The launch of Herschel and Planck is the most recent successful ESA project. On May 14^th the two spacecraft were simultaneously launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA´s base in French Guyana. The scientific goal of both missions is very ambitious: to cast a new light on the nature of the cosmos and the origins of the universe.

Herschel is designed to study the origins and evolution of stars and galaxies. It is the largest and most powerful telescope ever built, dwarfing the Hubble Space Telescope with its 3,5 m diameter mirror. Planck can measure the fluctuations of the residual radiation from the Big Bang with a sensitivity and frequency range never achieved before. To allow the sophisticated on-board instruments to work in the proper conditions, Planck is the coldest point of the universe, reaching a temperature of 0,1 Kelvin. Both satellites have now reached their final faraway orbits around the L2 point.