07 June 2016
A green light for the LISA Pathfinder mission
... full science performance. We made the acceleration of test-masses due to disturbances much smaller than that expected from...a large gravitational wave antenna down to something which allows us test the technology. We are showing that we know how to ...
02 September 2016
Falcon 9 rocket and Amos-6 satellite explode during testing
... SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle has exploded during a static fire test on September 1, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9...while it was being loaded in the minutes before the static fire test. The cause of the explosion is yet unknown. No one was...
19 February 2016
Test Masses of ESA's LISA Pathfinder Released Successfully
... company. Satellite operators from ESA, supported by engineers from Airbus Defence and Space, successfully released the test masses (nicknamed Jake and Elwood) inside the spacecraft´s scientific instrument. The LISA Technology Package (LTP), which...
April 2019
LISA Pathfinder – paving the way for future studies of the gravitational universe
... the technology developed for LISA Pathfinder. The diagram (right) shows the residual relative accelerations of the test masses over frequency and highlights the improvements of performance over the mission duration. Lisa Pathfinder performance. Next...
March 2016
Gravitational waves provide new window on the universe
... of LIGO made in recent years, including the addition of more powerful lasers and using silica fibres on the test masses to reduce thermal noise, it may have been much later before the groundbreaking achievement of detecting gravitational waves...
21 June 2017
LISA gets green light from ESA
..., untouched but shielded by the spacecraft while simultaneously being placed in a nearly perfect gravitational free-fall. As the test masses are free from all external (and internal), non-gravitational forces, their relative motion can be measured...
