The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state.

[7][8] PLATO was announced on 19 February 2014 as the selected M3 class science mission for implementation as part of its Cosmic Vision Programme.

[7] The PLATO Mission Consortium (PMC) that is responsible for the payload and major contributions to the science operations is led by Prof. Heike Rauer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research.

[1][5] To achieve this objective, the mission has these goals: PLATO will differ from the CoRoT, TESS, CHEOPS, and Kepler space telescopes in that it will study relatively bright stars (between magnitudes 4 and 11), enabling a more accurate determination of planetary parameters, and making it easier to confirm planets and measure their masses using follow-up radial velocity measurements on ground-based telescopes.

[1] The space observatory will rotate around the mean line of sight once per year, delivering a continuous survey of the same region of the sky.

[1] The public release of photometric data (including light curves) and high-level science products for each quarter will be made after six months and by one year after the end of their validation period.

The proprietary period is limited to 6 months after the completion of the ground-based observations or the end of the mission archival phase (Launch date + 7.5 years), whichever comes first.