Filling of the Gaia spacecraft fuel tanks at the Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. A global space astrometry mission, Gaia will make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars. Gaia is scheduled for launch on 19 December 2013.
More on the countdown to Gaia’s launch in the blog: blogs.esa.int/gaia/