Live coverage
Stream links and embedded coverage.
TMinusZero
Loading
Preparing the latest launch data.
Launch Detail
Loading launch detail
Pulling launch timing, vehicle context, weather signals, and mission evidence.
Launch detail
Arianespace • Soyuz STB Fregat-MT • Soyuz Launch Complex (NA)
Top answer
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.
Last refreshed: Jun 14, 2023, 1:08 AM GMT-3. T-Minus Zero keeps this as the canonical launch record and reconciles schedule, mission, payload, media, and provider signals when those records are available.
Alternate mission URLs consolidate to this canonical launch record so exact mission timing, status, media, and source context stay on one page.
Stream links and embedded coverage.
Premium keeps the launch-by-launch change log visible so you can review slips, window edits, and status changes without waiting for an error-driven upgrade prompt.
Free-to-share photography matched to this launch. Tap a photo to view it at full resolution.
Provider, rocket, pad, and booster history tied to this launch.
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.

Use these internal paths to move from this exact launch record into the provider, vehicle, launch-site, schedule, and mission-family pages that own broader context.
This launch currently has no dedicated mission-family hub, so provider, vehicle, site, and canonical record links are the primary internal paths.
Key structured fields for this launch record are grouped here so the page answers mission, payload, orbit, provider, source, and timing questions before the deeper tracking and media sections.
This record is preserved as historical launch context. The page emphasizes what was launched, the vehicle and pad involved, published outcome/status fields, linked programs, and source records instead of treating the mission like an upcoming countdown.
Open the launch pad in Google Maps satellite mode using the pad coordinates.
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.
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.
Arianespace SA is a multinational company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane programme. Their vehicles launch exclusively from French Guiana in South America.
4ae14a1430867131d98bb0b0aae4c49c4e41f15e9b81f7c92e07bc4bc5972c3bLinked via Spaceflight News API (SNAPI).
ArticleEver wondered how planetary systems like our own Solar System form? Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, we're getting a unique peek b...
ArticleOur 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 als...
ArticleScientists 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...
ArticleScientists 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...
ArticleIn the past decade, the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has revealed the nature, history, and behaviour of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer h...
ArticleOver 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...