ESA title

The mission

Gaia is creating an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of more than a thousand million stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition. This huge stellar census will provide the data needed to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy.

 

  • Launch: 19 December 2013
  • Orbit: L2 Lagrange point
  • Previous data release milestones:
    Data Release 1: 14 September 2016
    Data Release 2: 25 April 2018
    Early Data Release 3: 3 December 2020
    Data Release 3: 13 June 2022
    Focused Product Release: 10 October 2023
Gaia
Gaia liftoff
Science & Exploration

Gaia enters its operational orbit

08/01/2014 23261 views 100 likes
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Gaia liftoff
Science & Exploration

Liftoff for ESA’s billion-star surveyor

19/12/2013 30611 views 154 likes
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Science & Exploration

Gaia has ticket to ride

18/12/2013 11837 views 61 likes
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Gaia launch
Enabling & Support

Mission control ready for Gaia launch

17/12/2013 14139 views 66 likes
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Farewell to Gaia
Science & Exploration

Gaia secured inside fairing

13/12/2013 9057 views 60 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Call for Media: ESA’s Galaxy-mapping Gaia ready for launch …

12/12/2013 3929 views 17 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia launch postponement update

23/10/2013 13495 views 70 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Gaia: launch postponed

22/10/2013 3094 views 33 likes
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Science & Exploration

Countdown to launch of ESA’s billion-star surveyor

21/10/2013 5854 views 53 likes
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Antonov plane at Toulouse airport during Gaia loading
Science & Exploration

Gaia has arrived in French Guiana

23/08/2013 7950 views 60 likes
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Science & Exploration

Europe bids Gaia a safe journey

27/06/2013 8541 views 60 likes
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Gaia thermal–vacuum test
Agency

Dialling down the heat on ESA’s billion-star surveyor

18/09/2012 888 views 4 likes
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Enabling & Support

Gaia spreads its wings

07/12/2011 1925 views 2 likes
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Gaia camera array
Enabling & Support

Eye of Gaia: billion-pixel camera to map Milky Way

06/07/2011 8610 views 14 likes
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Artist's impression of the Gaia satellite
Science & Exploration

Gaia to lift off from Europe’s Spaceport on a Soyuz launcher

16/12/2009 2087 views 1 likes
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Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way
Science & Exploration

Most extensive mapping of Milky Way a step closer

14/06/2005 1188 views 1 likes
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Gaia spacecraft showing deployed sunshield and solar arrays
Science & Exploration

Keeping ESA’s ‘lady of space’ cool

21/09/2004 2207 views 5 likes
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Gaia spacecraft
Science & Exploration

The billion-pixel camera

09/09/2004 9482 views 55 likes
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Gaia spacecraft
Science & Exploration

Mapping the Galaxy, and watching our backyard

25/06/2004 2771 views 12 likes
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