Space Countdown to Launch of ESA’s Billion-Star Surveyor by Gary Kopycinski on October 21, 2013 Gary Kopycinski Author More in Space: How NASA Tracked the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades May 16, 2024 Hubble Finds Hungry Black Hole Twisting Captured Star Into Donut Shape January 12, 2023 Christmas Launch Now for the James Webb Space Telescope December 21, 2021 EU–(ENEWSPF)–21 October 2013. ESA’s billion-star surveyor Gaia will be launched from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou on 20 November to begin a five-year mission to map the stars with unprecedented precision.