NASA has decided to launch a Space Shuttle mission in 2008 to repair and upgrade the NASA/ESA observatory. This servicing mission will ensure that Hubble can function for perhaps as many as another ten years and will increase its scientific capabilities in some key areas. Two new scientific instruments will be installed as part of the upgrade: the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. Both will improve Hubble's potential for discovery. Around the same time of this mission, ESA will launch Herschel, the Orbiting Telescope with the largest mirror ever deployed in space. Herschel will complement Hubble in the infrared part of the spectrum.

The new Hubble servicing mission

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Herschel will share its launch with a partner, the Planck microwave space observatory, as it begins its journey to its destination in space. The two satellites are now undergoing their final tests before launch

Herschel and Planck

With a growing global population ensuring food security in the world's poorer countries is a major concern – one that is being eased the help of data from Earth observation satellites such as Envisat

Food and satellites: Keeping an eye on food production

On 25 and 26 November in The Hague, Ministers in charge of space activities within the now 18 ESA Member States and Canada meet to define the role of space in delivering Europe's global objectives

Ministerial conference: Interview with ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain

Since the very first satellites carrying scientific instruments were launched, our understanding of the cosmos has improved. The Sun is studied to the core and, beyond our star, the Universe is becoming less obscure

ESA Science: past and future

The successful docking of the European Columbus module and the launch of the Automated Transfer Vehicle have opened a new era for Europe’s presence in space with the aspiration to consolidate its independence

The new Hubble servicing mission

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