#11: Gaia Flight Model Mass Properties Testing 17 June 2013 The Gaia Spacecraft Flight Model has successfully completed its mass properties test campaign. Read more
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Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy. Gaia will provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements with the accuracies needed to produce a stereoscopic and kinematic census of about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group. This amounts to about 1 per cent of the Galactic stellar population.
Spacecraft Testing
#10: Gaia Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing 31 May 2013 The Gaia Spacecraft Flight Model has successfully completed the electromagnetic compatibility test campaigns at the facilities of Intespace in Toulouse, France. Read more
#09: Gaia Flight Model Payload Data Handling Unit Delivered and Integrated 23 May 2013 The Gaia Flight Model Payload Data Handling Unit has been delivered and integrated into the Gaia Service Module. Its arrival allowed extensive end-to-end testing of the spacecraft systems to be performed. Read more
#08: Gaia Flight Model Payload Module thermal testing completed 20 February 2013 Thermal testing of the Gaia flight model payload module was completed at Centre Spatial de Liège. The payload module was then returned to Astrium Toulouse for integration with the service module. Read more
Featured publications
Gaia - ESA's Galactic Census 15 June 2012 ESA Brochure BR-269: An introduction to the Gaia mission. Read more
ESA SP-1323: ESA's Report to the 39th COSPAR Meeting 30 June 2012 The 39th meeting of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was held 14-22 July 2012 in Mysore, India. This report to COSPAR on the scientific activities of the European Space Agency was written by members of the Directorate of Earth Observation, the Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations and the Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. Read more
