The Herschel Space Observatory is the European Space Agency's state of the
art infrared space telescope launched into space on 14 May 2009, covering
the wavelength range from 70-700 microns with 3 instruments SPIRE, PACS and
HIFI. Herschel has now finished its Science Demonstration Phase and is now
making routine observations. I will present some  of the Science
Demonstration Phase Results from the large extragalactic programs and show
how Herschel is paving the way for the next generation space infrared
observatory, SPICA, due for launch in 2018.