ESA’s Gaia mission: Soyuz VS06 was transferred to the launch zone

Soyuz VS06 was transferred to the launch zone on 14 December 2013.

The vehicle was rolled out horizontally on its erector from the preparation building to the launch zone and then raised into the vertical position.

Soyuz VS06 will lift off on 19 December 2013 from Europe's Spaceport, French Guiana. 

The rocket will carry the Gaia mission, which will produce an unprecedented 3D map of our Galaxy by mapping, with exquisite precision, the position and motion of a billion stars.

Soyuz VS06 upper composite, Gaia space observatory, was transferred to the pad and installed inside the mobile gantry on 14 December 2013.