LISA Pathfinder

LISA Pathfinder is a European Space Agency (ESA) technology test mission that aims to prove essential key technologies for future space-based gravitational-wave observatories, which cannot be tested on Earth, but only in space.

For this purpose, one laser arm of a planned large gravitational wave mission is reduced from millions of kilometres to 40cm to fit into a single spacecraft.

LISA Pathfinder is paving the way for a large-scale space mission designed to detect one of the most elusive phenomena in astronomy – gravitational waves.