[Robert]

The Planck Satellite

The Planck satellite is scheduled for launch by the Europeans in the first quarter of 2007. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the cosmic background radiation field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution.

More information can be found here.

[neutralino]

Since this thread has been started, Planck's launch date has been put back quite a few times. The current launch date is 31st July 2008, with the first data set predicted to be available within 12 months (so say some optimistic cosmologists!)

Here is the website for more information: http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=Planck