"The largest digital camera" was sent into space

Most recently, Habré published an article " A billion pixels for a billion stars " about the telescope, which should make the most accurate map of the Milky Way (and not only). This telescope is also called the largest digital camera in the world, since the device is equipped with a matrix with a size of 1 * 0.5 meters, and a resolution of 938 MP.

So, today there was a successful launch of this spacecraft. The launch was carried out from the Kourou space center (French Guiana), with the help of the Soyuz.
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It is worth noting that the telescope should have been launched a month ago, on November 19, but because of the identified problems, the device had to be returned from Guiana to Europe, for verification.

The project cost was 740 million euros, and a telescope was developed for about 20 years.

Hopefully, the Gaia telescope will soon take its calculated position at the L2 point of Lagrange, where it will begin work. If everything goes well, it is likely that after a short time the telescope will start sending the most interesting information to Earth, so we are waiting for the news.



Via bbc