Replay of the media and VIP event celebrating the launch of Gaia at ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, 19 December 2013. The audience included 50 journalists, as well as 150 guests from local government, diplomacy, industry and academia.
Liftoff occurred at 09:12UT/10:12CET on 19 December and the critical deployment of Gaia's sunshield was confirmed approximately 90 minutes later. Gaia is now on its way to L2, where it will study the characteristics of 1 billion stars to create the most precise 3D map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
The event programme at ESOC was moderated Juliet Mann.