The historical archive phase is outside the funded Herschel mission. This phase commences after the end of the post-operations phase.

The historical archive will provide access to all Herschel observations and derived products. The products will all be derived in the archive consolidation phase during the post-operations phase in a consistent manner and to consistent standards using the best knowledge of Herschel instrument calibration and data processing. In addition, the software, documentation - manuals, etc.- and tools will be available from the historical archive.