Europe postponed the mission to map the Milky Way

The European Space Agency (ESA) said it will postpone the mission to launch a galaxy mapping spacecraft due to a technical issue involving components on board, redOrbit said on October 24.

>>>ESA telescope launcher warning early fall meteorite

Gaia spacecraft is responsible for mapping the Milky Way - (Photo: ESA)

The mission to launch the Gaia, with the task of surveying billions of stars to create a detailed 3D map of our Milky Way, has been postponed after a technical problem was identified in the part of a Satellites are flying in orbit that Gaia spacecraft also uses.

To avoid future incidents, these components on Gaia, including two signal transmitters, will be replaced, ESA announced.

Currently the Gaia spacecraft is at Kourou Aerospace in French Guiana, and the removal of these two parts to be returned to Europe for inspection, then the replacement will take a long time.

Therefore, the launch of Gaia is expected to take place on November 20, and this ship will most likely take off from December 17 to January 5, 2014. ESA science said.