Hipparcos [SEP] named after
-precision catalogue of more than 118,200 stars, was published in 1997. The lower-precision "Tycho Catalogue" of more than a million stars was published at the same time, while the enhanced Tycho-2 Catalogue of 2.5 million stars was published in 2000. "Hipparcos" follow-up mission, "Gaia", was launched in 2013.
The word "Hipparcos" is an acronym for HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite and also a reference to the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Nicaea, who is noted for applications
Aerospace in Bremen; the solar arrays and thermal control system from Fokker Space System in Leiden; the data handling and telecommunications system from Saab Ericsson Space in Gothenburg; and the apogee boost motor from SEP in France. Groups from the Institut d'Astrophysique in Liege and the Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale in Marseille contributed optical performance, calibration and alignment test procedures; Captec in Dublin and Logica in London contributed to the on-board software and calibration.
The "Hipparcos" satellite was launched (with the direct broadcast satellite TV-SAT2 as