Reaction to Gaia's products and mission has been overwhelmingly positive, with the company recently winning Junior Achievement’s Big Pitch competition for their creativity.

If space is the final frontier, it will help to have an accurate map, and the European Space Agency said Wednesday its mission to chart more than 1 billion stars in the Milky Way is on track for completion in a year's time.

The European Space Agency launched its star-surveying satellite Gaia into space Thursday, hoping to produce the most accurate 3D map of the Milky Way.