14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) have just released a new time-lapse video, depicting their latest spacecraft, the Gaia space telescope, throughout its journey from a hangar bay to Earth's orbit. This mission is one of the most ambitious ESA has ever launched, experts agree.
The video covers the most important milestones in preparing the spacecraft for its trek to space. It starts off by depicting the sunshield deployment test that the telescope underwent within an assembly building at the Kourou Spaceport, in French Guiana, South America.
The next step is the complex ballet that saw the Russian-built Soyuz VS06 medium-lift delivery system hoisted onto its special launch pad. The Fregat upper stage containing Gaia is then hoisted atop the rocket, and securely attached for the powered ascension to Earth's orbit.
The last sequences depict the launch of the mission from several angles. Gaia launched to map the positions of over 1 billion stars in the Milky Way over the next 5 years. Takeoff occurred on December 19, 2013, and the telescope recently reached its intended orbit, in Earth's L2 orbital point.