  As part of the science demonstration phase of the Herschel mission of the
Gould Belt Key Program, the Aquila Rift molecular complex has been observed.
The complete ~ 3.3deg x 3.3deg imaging with SPIRE 250/350/500 micron and PACS
70/160 micron allows a deep investigation of embedded protostellar phases,
probing of the dust emission from warm inner regions at 70 and 160 micron to
the bulk of the cold envelopes between 250 and 500 micron. We used a systematic
detection technique operating simultaneously on all Herschel bands to build a
sample of protostars. Spectral energy distributions are derived to measure
luminosities and envelope masses, and to place the protostars in an M_env -
L_bol evolutionary diagram. The spatial distribution of protostars indicates
three star-forming sites in Aquila, with W40/Sh2-64 HII region by far the
richest. Most of the detected protostars are newly discovered. For a reduced
area around the Serpens South cluster, we could compare the Herschel census of
protostars with Spitzer results. The Herschel protostars are younger than in
Spitzer with 7 Class 0 YSOs newly revealed by Herschel. For the entire Aquila
field, we find a total of ~ 45-60 Class 0 YSOs discovered by Herschel. This
confirms the global statistics of several hundred Class~0 YSOs that should be
found in the whole Gould Belt survey.
