  With a luminosity > 10^5 Lsun and a mass-loss rate of about 2.10-4 Msun/yr,
the red supergiant VY CMa truly is a spectacular object. Because of its extreme
evolutionary state, it could explode as supernova any time. Studying its
circumstellar material, into which the supernova blast will run, provides
interesting constraints on supernova explosions and on the rich chemistry
taking place in such complex circumstellar envelopes. We have obtained
spectroscopy of VYCMa over the full wavelength range offered by the PACS and
SPIRE instruments of Herschel, i.e. 55 to 672 micron. The observations show the
spectral fingerprints of more than 900 spectral lines, of which more than half
belong to water. In total, we have identified 13 different molecules and some
of their isotopologues. A first analysis shows that water is abundantly
present, with an ortho-to-para ratio as low as 1.3:1, and that chemical
non-equilibrium processes determine the abundance fractions in the inner
envelope.
