Gaia
Liftoff
December 19, 2013
Still Exploring
Mission Info
Gaia is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA), designed for measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented precision. Gaia spins once every six hours, sweeping its two telescopes across the entire sky to observe a billion stars creating a record of the brightness and the position of each star over time.
Key Facts
Launch Vehicle
Delta 7920H
Launch Site
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Gaia monitored each of its target objects an average of 70 times over five years to create a record of the brightness and the position of each star over time
