Preparing to map a billion stars: the final hours before Gaia's historic launch
In short: This video captures the final preparations at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou before the Gaia mission. It offers an inside look at the integration and rollout of the Soyuz launcher, setting the stage for an ambitious project to create a precise 3D map of our galaxy.
The Gaia mission aims to chart the positions and movements of one billion stars with extreme precision. The video documents the technical milestones leading up to the scheduled launch on 19 December 2013 at 10:12 CET, including the installation of the aerodynamic fairing and the mating of the upper composite to the Soyuz launcher.
Featured in the footage are insights from Giuseppe Sarri, the Gaia Project Manager, and Timo Prusti, the Gaia Project Scientist. Their contributions provide context on the mission's scope and the complex engineering required to prepare the spacecraft for its journey from Kourou.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Update from Kourou the day before launch day
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