Roger-Maurice Bonnet graduated from Paris University. A space scientist and solar astronomer, he was in charge of the first French space astronomy rocket program. He led the Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planétaire of CNRS (now renamed Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale) from1969 until 1983 when he was elected Director of the ESA Science Program. There he established the first long term scientific program of ESA "Space Science Horizon 2000", a balanced mix of more than 20 large, medium and small missions, among which Herschel and Planck. In 2003 he became Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI). He is the author of more than 150 scientific articles and several books, several of them published by Springer.
Frank Helmich studied at the University of Groningen and obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden. After a short excursion to stratospheric chemistry at SRON in Utrecht, he moved to SRON Groningen to work on HIFI calibration and science. In 2007 he became Head of SRON's Low Energy Astrophysics Division and took over as Principal Investigator for Herschel/HIFI. In 2015 he became Leader of the Astrophysics Program of SRON. He is (co-) author of 70-refereed papers.
Vincent Bontems graduated from École Normale Supérieure de Lettres et Sciences Humaines and earned a PhD in philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He works at the laboratory Larsim of the CEA on epistemology of physics, technology and innovation, and sociology of sciences. He is a member of the "Physics and Fundamental Questions" committee of the French Society of Physics. He has written a book on Gaston Bachelard (Bachelard, Belles Lettres, 2010) and many articles, including "Gilbert Simondon's genetic 'mécanologie' and the understanding of laws of technical evolution" (Techne, 13: 1, 2009) and "What does innovation stand for? Review of a watchword in research policies" (Journal of Innovation Economics, 15, 2014).

ESA Herschel Project Scientist Göran Pilbratt received his PhD from Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden in 1986. His thesis topic was 'Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of superluminal sources'. In the same year, he joined ESA as a Research Fellow and was initially involved in ESA studies on space-based VLBI missions. He was appointed ESA Staff Scientist in 1988.
In 1991, he was appointed Study Scientist for FIRST, and became Project Scientist for the mission in 1995, a position he still holds. Following his proposal, the mission was renamed Herschel in December 2000 to celebrate the bicentenary of the discovery of infrared light by William Herschel.Sergio Volonte graduated in physics at Université de Liège in 1967. From 1968 to 1971 he was ESRO research fellow at the Culham Laboratory (UK) and obtained is PhD from University College London in 1972. He returned to Belgium at Departement d'Astrophysique, Université de Mons where he lectured in Astronomy and Spectroscopy. In 1986, he joined ESA as Coordinator for Astronomy missions in the Directorate of the Science Programme at the Paris Headquarters. He retired in 2008 as Head of the ESA Science Programme Planning & Coordination Office. He is the author or co-author of some 80 scientific papers and a member of various societies, in particular, the International Astronomical Union, Cospar, the International Astronautical Federation as well as fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Vincent Minier received his PhD in astrophysics from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. After a two-year research position at UNSW in Sydney, he came back to France in 2003 to work at CEA / Paris Saclay University. Star formation is his main field of expertise, and he has conducted observations with word-class telescopes both on Earth (Chile, Australia, US, Europe) and in space(Herschel space observatory). Besides fundamental science, he leads the ExplorNova research project

Describes the story of one of the most successful space missions in astronomy, the Herschel Space Observatory, from early design to scientific achievement

Takes an interdisciplinary approach presenting a study conducted by space scientists, astrophysicists, managers of space missions, philosophers and historians of technology

Showcases the first application of the concept of "Innovation", both in technology and management to a major space astronomical telescope

Discusses ideas about knowledge management of large industrial projects, both for professional and educational purposes

General Introduction.- Creating the Strategic Framework for Herschel.- Science Evolution.- Overview of the Mission.- Innovation in Technology and Management:- Introduction to Innovations within Herschel.- Silicon Carbide (SiC) Telescope: History of an Invention.- Herschel Cryostat Customisation.- Far Infrared Bolometers and their Competitive Technical Lineages.- Heterodyne Receivers: Recurrent Synergy Between Ground and Space.- Management Organisation.- Conclusions.