Gaia launch date advanced by one day

According to the official ESA blog for the Gaia mission the launch date of Gaia has been advanced by one day to December 19. The lift-off time is set to 10:12:18 CET. Here you can find the announcement:

http://blogs.esa.int/gaia/2013/11/22/gaia-launch-set-for-19-december/

This advancement of the launch date was possible due to the smoothly going launch processing during the recent days. Additionally, the delay of the Ariane 5 VA216 launch to 2014 due to the unreadiness of one its passenger satellites contributed to the decision. And with this earlier launch (if it goes as it is planned now) some staff preparing the launch will have some earlier Christmas holidays. 😉