Europe bids farewell to prolific Herschel space telescope

By Stephen ClarkSpace.comPARIS — Ground controllers put Europe's Herschel Space Observatory to sleep Monday, turning off the infrared observatory after squeezing every bit of engineering value from the spacecraft since it ceased scientific work in April.Engineers sent the final commands to Herschel at 8:25 a.m. EDT in an emotional ceremony at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germ...

 
 
 
  Reported by msnbc.com 7 hours ago.