Gaia launch replay highlights
ESA’s Gaia mission blasted off on 19 December 2013 on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion suns.
Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of 1% of the total population of roughly 100 billion stars, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home Galaxy.
The Soyuz launcher, operated by Arianespace, lifted off at 09:12 GMT (10:12 CET). About ten minutes later, after separation of the first three stages, the Fregat upper stage ignited, delivering Gaia into a temporary parking orbit at an altitude of 175 km.
Gaia is now en route towards an orbit around a gravitationally-stable virtual point in space called L2, some 1.5 million kilometres beyond Earth as seen from the Sun.
This video includes highlights of the launch webcast including lift-off from Kourou, the Soyuz mission, separation of Gaia and the successful entry into orbit.
Credit:ESA / CNEA / Arianespace
Planeta Zem? je v teorii ch?p?na jako souvisl? superorganismus !
und tsch?ss^^ super to?reach Lagrange 2
GAIA is in the right position! Hope the technics on board?for the experimental work isn?t damaged!!!
Nice to see more and more cooperations between ESA and Russia. Will be interesting to see ExoMars and JUICE wich allso Russia will be part of.?
I HATE THESE ADVERTISEMENTS PLAYING ( that you cant pause or skip ) WHILE IM TRYING TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO WHATS GOING ONNN!!!!!!!!!!?
gaia will bring significant discoveries… we can lear the dimension of the our spiral arms,,,, the thinkness and density… size….
Couldn't the French find a better chairman for Arianspace than this slimy yid?? Have they lost theire senses?? This yid is there to scuttle the European space programme. France are going to the dogs.
Very Good &? Greate Sucess, wow..
How appropriate for Europeans, who have largely turned their back on the one true God, to dedicate this spacecraft to?Gaia who?was the great mother of all: the primal Greek Mother Goddess; creator and giver of birth to the Earth and all the Universe.
They should have an escape tower in case the rocket went wrong and then they wouldn't loose all that expensive satellite hardware.