Watch the Launch

Watch the Launch

Gaia

Overview

Destination: Sun-Earth L2
Mission: Astrophysics

Sun-Earth L2 Soyuz Launch Complex Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Gaia's ambitious mission is to chart a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way, in process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of our galaxy.

Soyuz STB

Family:
Configuration: Fregat-MT

The 2.1b version adds an upgraded engine (RD-0124) with improved performance to the second stage. First launch took place from Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 on 26 July 2008 with a classified military payload. The 2.1b/ST version is sometimes called Soyuz ST-B.

Specifications
  • Stages
    3
  • Length
    46.3 m
  • Diameter
    2.95 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    ―
  • Launch Mass
    310.0 T
  • Thrust
    ―
Family
  • Name
    Soyuz STB
  • Family
    ―
  • Variant
    Fregat-MT
  • Alias
    ―
  • Full Name
    Soyuz STB Fregat-MT
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $80000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    8200.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    3250.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
    ―
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    4900.0 kg

Progress Rocket Space Center

Progress Rocket Space Center

(PRSC)

CEO: Dmitry Baranov Founded: 1996 Successes: 44 Failures: 1 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

Progress Rocket Space Centre, formerly known as TsSKB-Progress, is a space science and aerospace research company which is known for manufacturing launch vehicles and satellites. Most notably, Progress Rocket Space Centre is the manufacturer of Soyuz launch vehicles.

INFO WIKI
ESA

Gaia discovers our galaxy’s great wave

Our Milky Way galaxy never sits still: it rotates and wobbles. And now, data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope reveal that our galaxy also has a giant wave rippling outwards from its centre.

ESA

The most accurate 3D map of stellar nurseries in the Milky Way

Scientists created the most accurate three-dimensional map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas…

ESA

Fly through Gaia’s 3D map of stellar nurseries

Scientists created the most accurate three-dimensional map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas…

ESA

Gaia proves our skies are filled with chains of starry gatherings

In the past decade, the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has revealed the nature, history, and behaviour of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, revealing that star clu…

ESA

Hubble and Gaia revisit fate of our galaxy

Over a decade’s worth of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data was used to re-examine the long-held prediction that the Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. The astronomers found that, based on…

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Soyuz Launch Complex


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