Gaia spacecraft passivation and final orbit

Gaia's orbit around Lagrange point L2 can no longer be maintained without propellant, hence Gaia is moved into a heliocentric orbit, away from other spacecraft observing the Universe from L2 and avoiding close proximity to Earth. Once Gaia has been inserted into its final orbit, the spacecraft will be passivated. Passivating a spacecraft means that the payload, payload module, service module and transmitters are all switched off. Gaia was designed to be resilient and may try to reboot itself after being switched off. With the passivation we ensure that such a reboot is prevented.

The spacecraft passivation marks the official retirement for the Gaia spacecraft. The ESA Gaia flight operations team will continue working on other space missions from then on. The Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium as well as the ESA Gaia Science Operations Team will continue their work on the preparation of Gaia's data release 4 (expected ~2026) and Gaia's final legacy catalogue (expected ~2030). The ESA Gaia mission will continue until the publication of the final catalogues, after which it will transition to legacy phase.

Gaia's final orbit

The disposal will consist of two burns. The first burn is expected on 7 March, the final burn will be performed on 27 March 2025.

News release

A news release will be published around the 27th of March.

ESOC

Gaia colleagues are gathering at ESOC on the 27th of March to send the Gaia spacecraft off into its retirement.

Gaia fairing logo - this logo was put on the fairing when Gaia was launched ​​​​​​​on 19 December 2013. Find it published here. A girl reaching for the stars.. waving Gaia goodbye. Credits: ESA.