In mission analysis we provide the mission design, that is the trajectory from launch to operational orbit, time-lines and associated products like ground-station visibility schedule, delta-v budget, launch window, etc. We are in the mission since a very early stage normally all the way to the end. Our role gets a little less visible after launch as the operational responsibility for the orbit is taken over by flight dynamics.

Personally I am fascinated by the science of the Gaia mission. As a natural scientist I share the ambition to find new things in nature by performing a simple measurement (like the measurement of the position of stars in the sky) very precisely (which then makes it much less "simple"). So I am highly dedicated to finding the best possible orbit for Gaia, the current baseline being a 15 degree Lissajous orbit around the night-side Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, which is reached from the launch by Soyuz from Kourou by a fast transfer comprising two deterministic manoeuvres. Go Gaia!