Antonov plane at Toulouse airport during Gaia loading
EU–(ENEWSPF)–23 August 2013. ESA’s billion-star surveyor, Gaia, departed yesterday evening from Toulouse and arrived early this morning in French Guiana. Gaia will be launched later this year from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou on a five-year mission to map the stars of the Milky Way with unprecedented precision.
Built by Astrium in Toulouse, the Gaia spacecraft took off on board an Antonov 124 heavy-lift aircraft at 20.00 yesterday from Toulouse airport with the destination of Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana. The spacecraft will now be transported by truck to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, 64 km from Cayenne.
“This is a very exciting day for the Gaia mission and all the teams involved, who have worked for years to get to where we are today,” says Giuseppe Sarri, ESA’s Gaia project manager. “Arriving in Kourou and starting the launch campaign is a great achievement.”
Gaia’s main goal is to create a highly accurate 3D map of our galaxy, the Milky Way, by repeatedly observing a billion stars to determine their precise positions in space and their motions through it.
