Observation Quality Control is an important responsibility of the HSC. Its main purpose is to ensure that the observations have been correctly executed, that their observational data meet the established requirements, and that they can be processed error free. It is important to note that the HSC did not assess systematically the scientific validity of individual observations, but has concentrated on their execution and the data processing aspects.

In combination with the SPG processing, the observational data was run through the Quality Control Pipeline (QCP). An HSC operator would inspect visually all scientific Herschel observations and will proceed according to agreed observatory procedures. For certain types of problems, the operator would request the assistance of the instrument and satellite specialists at the HSC, ICCs, or MOC, who will investigate the reason for the anomally, assess its impact on the quality of the observational data and determine possible implications for the ground segment. In severe cases, observations may be flagged as "failed" in the database, and made available for re-scheduling (see Section 7.3, “Failed observations”.

For every observation, quality information is gathered in a "Quality Control report summary" product, that is made available in the Herschel Science Archive, attached to the observational data. The report contains both the automatically generated Quality Control data and the conclusions of the problem analysis by the experts, when applicable. Items that are included in the report include: MOC spacecraft and operations information, on-board observation execution anomalies (instrument, or satellite related), telemetry gaps (these are now all filled), pointing issues, space weather events, instrument specific warnings (e.g., high glitch rate), and data processing problems.