ESA Gaia spacecraft: SENER Sunshield Installation

The Gaia spacecraft is inside the cleanroom at Kourou, where the temperature is maintained at a constant 23 degrees.

Air is circulated through filters to preserve a clean environment, and the humidity in the cleanroom will be kept at about 50%.

In the airlock leading to the cleanroom, the Astrium Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) team and the SENER Sunshield team are getting ready to start the first shift of the day.

The Astrium AIT team has the delicate task of putting together all the elements that make up the spacecraft.

The sunshield is one of the very last parts to be added to the spacecraft, and for that phase they work together with the SENER team.

The structural skeleton of the sunshield is made up of 12 frames of carbon fibre tubes, split into 4 quarters of 3 frames each.

Each quarter has to be lifted with an overhead crane from its transport frame, smoothly placed on the spacecraft, and carefully aligned before it is fastened in its final position.

Read more at the ESA GAIA Portal