On Thursday 6th October, e2v was joined by representatives from the European Space Agency (ESA), Astrium SAS (the prime contractor for Gaia), key suppliers and local dignitaries for a celebration at their headquarters in Chelmsford, UK, to mark the successful delivery of over 150 e2v imaging sensors for Gaia, an ESA mission to record over one billion stars.

An audience of over 200 (including local dignitaries) listened to presentations given by the e2v team who had worked on the Gaia project and by Giuseppe Sarri, Gaia Project Manager from ESA and Philippe Charvet, Gaia Payload Manager from Astrium SAS, who both travelled to the event especially to thank the e2v team.

Guiuseppe Sarri from ESA said "The imaging sensors provided by e2v are impressive in size and number and excellent in quality. We are most impressed by the outstanding performance shown by e2v during this very challenging production."

e2v Marketing and Applications Manager, Jon Kemp said, "The e2v team who designed, made and qualified the imaging sensors that will make this cornerstone programme possible are delighted to be celebrating such a significant achievement with our customers and local dignitaries. We have delivered the sensors for an almost 1 billion pixel camera that will be the biggest in space and are looking forward to seeing astounding scientific discoveries enabled by the e2v team."

Over 150 e2v high performance imaging sensors have been delivered for Gaia. These were integrated by Astrium, to form the very impressive focal plane array ahead of the proposed 2013 launch. These imaging sensors will make it possible to record over one billion stars for an extraordinary 3-D map of the galaxy.