“I didn’t want to die.” Scientists faced unexpected difficulties when disabled the Gaia Space Telescope

The spacecraft, which was engaged in the creation of the most recent three -dimensional map of more than a billion stars, has proved to be incredibly resistant to trying to deactivate it.

The mission operator Tiga Nogeira said: “The shutdown of a spacecraft at the end of his mission seems like a simple task, but Gaia did not want it.” This is due to the fact that the engineers created it in such a way that it maintains extreme conditions, including radiation, impact of micrometeorites and loss of communication with the Earth.

As a result, scientists were forced to gradually turn off the systems and destroy the software so that Gaia could not turn on again if its solar panels find light.

Launched in 2013, GAIA has been in mapping of the starry sky for over ten years. However, in early March 2025, his mission approached. During the final maneuver, the device left the Lagrangi point 2, located about 1.5 million kilometers from the ground, and moved into a stable orbit around the sun, where it will remain for at least 100 years.

In the last hours of work, engineers have sequentially disconnected the system systems and then intentionally damaged its software. Julia Fortuno, a mission engineer, said, “We did our best to make Gaia never turn on again.”

During the years of work, Gaia has gathered invaluable data that enabled scientists to clarify the location of the solar system in the galactic disk and confirm its movement to the center of the Milky Way. The mission also helped to identify exoplanets that could be the goals of future research.

“I feel mixed feelings: the joy of completing the mission and sadness from farewell to the apparatus with which I worked for over five years, ”Fortuna shared. However, the data collected will be used for many years, leaving an inheritance that will continue to change humanity’s perception of space.