The Gaia Satellite from the UK.
Published on 21 Jul 2010 at 00:00.
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Filed under Equipments, Features of Interest.
Wednesday 21st July 2010
The Gaia Satellite from the UK to be launched in 2012 that the new mission to create the largest and most precise three dimensional (3D) chart of our Galaxy by providing unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements for about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group.
Click here for movie showing by ESA (European Space Agency) the deployment of Gaia’s solar array and sunshield.
The main structure of the spacecraft was moved this week from the UK factory at EADS Astrium, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, where it has been for a year to undergo tests on its propulsion system then transported by the road to Ampac-ISP at Aylesbury for checks on its cold gas micro-thrusters then after that work is complete – it will move to Astrium at Toulouse in France for final preparations, it will be due for launch in 2012 by a rocket – Soyuz Rocket from the new Sinamary Spaceport in French Guiana, northeast of South America.
