The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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ESA’s Gaia observatory was launched in December 2013, and is now surveying our Milky Way, creating creating the most accurate-ever map of the stars in our home galaxy and helping to answer questions about its origin and evolution.
The spacecraft is operated by teams at ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, who send commands, download data and status information and ensure the health and functioning of this marvellous explorer. They also plan and conduct the routine manoeuvres needed to keep it in its orbital position, 1.5 million km from Earth.
In this picture, operations engineers can be seen working around part of the Gaia Avionics Model.
Avionics are the devices, hardware and software on a spacecraft that enable it to be controlled from the ground, include propulsion, attitude control, communication, computers and navigation.
“This model contains engineering copies of some of Gaia’s onboard units,” says spacecraft operations manager Dave Milligan.
“It is used for high-fidelity simulations allowing our team to test procedures and software on the ground before they are executed on the real thing, 1.5 million km away.
“It is was recently used to test an automatic micropropulsion recovery process, now successfully used in flight.”
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