Gaia telescope to provide 3-D map of Milky Way

The European Space Agency has launched an advanced telescope designed to detect a billion stars and provide the most detailed map yet of the Milky Way and our place in it.

The Gaia telescope was successfully hoisted by a Soyuz-STB-Fregat rocket from ESA’s space base in Kourou, French Guiana, the agency reported.

The star-hunter separated from the last of the rocket’s four stages 42 minutes after launch, and mission controllers said everything was fine.