The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.
On 27 March 2025, Gaia’s control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Center carefully switched off the spacecraft’s subsystems and sent it into a «retirement orbit» around the sun.
Though the spacecraft’s operations are now over, the scientific exploitation of Gaia’s data has just begun.
Launched in 2013, Gaia has transformed our understanding of the cosmos by precisely mapping the positions, distances, motions, and properties of nearly 2 billion stars and other celestial objects. It has provided the largest, most precise multi-dimensional map of our galaxy ever created, revealing its structure and evolution in unprecedented detail.
The mission uncovered evidence of past galactic mergers, identified new star clusters, contributed to the discovery of exoplanets and black holes, mapped millions of quasars and galaxies, and tracked hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets. It also enabled the creation of the best visualization of how our galaxy might look to an outside observer.
«Gaia’s extensive data releases are a unique treasure trove for astrophysical research, and influence almost all disciplines in astronomy», says Gaia Project Scientist Johannes Sahlmann.
«Data release 4, planned for 2026, and the final Gaia legacy catalogs, planned for release no earlier than the end of 2030, will continue shaping our scientific understanding of the cosmos for decades to come.»
Gaia far exceeded its planned lifetime of five years, and its fuel reserves are dwindling. The Gaia team carefully considered how best to dispose of the spacecraft in line with ESA’s efforts to responsibly dispose of its missions.
