MOSCOW, December 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz-ST booster rocket with a Fregat-MT upper stage carrying a European Gaia space telescope has been successfully launched from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana.

“The launch was successfully made at 06:12 local time (13:12 Moscow time),” a representative of the European Space Agency told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“At 13:21 Moscow time (09:21 GMT) the upper stage with the telescope separated from the booster rocket. Gaia will separate from the upper stage in 42 minutes at 13:54 Moscow time (09:54 GMT),” he said.

Gaia is built by EADS Astrium for the European Space Agency. The telescope will observe astronomical objects of the Milky Way Galaxy. Using this telescope researchers plan to discover around 10,000 exoplanets.