The “Herschel Space Observatory” is an ESA mission to perform imaging photometry and spectroscopy in the far-IR & submm 57–670 μm range. It carries a 3.5 m diameter radiatively cooled telescope. The scientific instruments – two cameras/medium resolution spectrometers (PACS and SPIRE) and a very high resolution heterodyne spectrometer (HIFI) – are housed in a superfluid helium cryostat. Herschel will be placed in orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 point in 2007 and will operate for a minimum of 3 years. Roughly 2/3 of the observing time is open to the general astronomical community through a competitive proposal procedure.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html