The Herschel Space Telescope - Episode 1

The first of two programmes which follows the engineers and astronomers who worked on the biggest telescope ever sent to space, in one of the most important missions in the history of European spaceflight. Jonathon Amos joins Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff University and his international team as they aimed to peer through the areas in space that are invisible to other telescopes. This is the story of their aims to solve the mystery behind galaxy and star formation and how these processes eventually gave rise to life-bearing planets like Earth. In this episode, first broadcast in 2009, the team are approaching the biggest milestone in their twenty year project - the launch of their work on a rocket from a spaceport in French Guiana.