Artist's impression of the Gaia spacecraft. Several components are made transparent to reveal other sections.

The payload module with the ~3m diameter hexagonal optical bench is depicted in blue. It rests on the electrical service module, which is the 12-sided yellow structure in the lower half of the image. The electrical service module houses the two star trackers (bright yellow at lower right), the communication subsystem, central computer and data handling subsystem, and the power subsystem (all in purple). In the centre of the electrical service module are the bipropellant tanks, micropropulsion tanks and pressurant tank (all in orange).

Resting on top of the electrical service module and covering the payload module is the thermal tent, depicted here transparent in light brown. On the flat top of the thermal tent is the low gain antenna (purple).

The unfolded sunshield is the transparent grey platform in the lower part of the image. Attached to the outside of the flat and uniform deployable sunshield are 6 solar panels, which can also be seen in this view.