The European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory was put into space today by a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Arianespace facility in French Guiana. The goal of the mission:

Gaia will make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars.

Some reports on the launch:

• Liftoff for ESA’s billion-star surveyor – ESA
• Soyuz Launch Report | Europe’s ‘discovery machine’ soars to map the Milky Way – SpaceflightNow

Here is a replay of launch highlights:

Here’s are a couple of videos about the Gaia mission: