LISA reaches a crucial milestone

The future gravitational-wave observatory in space completes a rigorous review

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASAEA/ESA/CXC/STScl/GSFCSVS/S.Barke (CC BY 4.0)

LISA Pathfinder - A Space Saga

Relive the groundbreaking technology demonstrator's mission milestones 5 years ago in a new Youtube mini-series released by the LISA Consortium.

LISA Pathfinder being encapsulated within the Vega rocket. © ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut

13th LISA Symposium talks are online

Find out about the exciting future of gravitational wave astrophysics in space!

Artist's impression of a LISA spacecraft. © AEI/MM/exozet

ESA ministers commit to biggest ever budget

The significant boost in funding for ESA’s world-class and inspirational science programme will allow the first gravitational wave detector in space, LISA, to fly alongside the black hole mission Athena.

ESA’s Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, has concluded in Seville, Spain, with the endorsement of the most ambitious plan to date for the future of ESA and the whole European space sector. Image: ESA

Why we need a gravitational wave observatory in space

The science case for LISA

Merging Black Holes. Credit: T. Pyle/LIGO

The Gravitational Universe

Illuminating the dark universe with a new astronomy

Artist's impression of supermassive black hole. Credit: ESA/NASA, AVO project, Paolo Padovani.

LISA: A New Astronomy

Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

Artist's impression of LISA satellite. Credit: AEI/MM/exozet
The LISA Mission Homepage

LISA - observing gravitational waves in space

LISA will be a large-scale space mission designed to detect one of the most elusive phenomena in astronomy - gravitational waves. With LISA we will be able to observe the entire universe directly with gravitational waves, learning about the formation of structure and galaxies, stellar evolution, the early universe, and the structure and nature of spacetime itself.

The LISA Pathfinder Mission successfully paved the way for the LISA mission by demonstrating the key technologies for a large gravitational wave observatory in space. The results show that LISA Pathfinder is working to a precision better than required for LISA. The LISA Pathfinder mission was launched on 3rd December 2015 and ended in July 2017. 

The LISA Consortium

The LISA Consortium is committed to supporting the LISA mission. It includes all the main investigators involved in the highly successful LISA Pathfinder mission, a number of scientists who worked on the ground-based LIGO, Virgo, and GEO projects, and a number who worked on the Laser Ranging Interferometer on the GRACE Follow-On mission, thus making full use of the expertise accumulated so far. The LISA Consortium proposed and submitted the white paper The Gravitational Universe which was accepted for the ESA L3 slot.

If you are a scientist and wish to contribute to the LISA mission, use this scientist registration form.

A new frontier for exploring the physical universe

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Latest news and consortium activities

Date Title Summary
Jun 24, 2016
 LISA Pathfinder completes first operations phase ESA: LISA Pathfinder completes first operations phase on 25 June and will continue...
Mar 06, 2020
 European Astronomical Society: LISA Pathfinder Principal Investigator Stefano Vitale awarded the 2020 Tycho Brahe Medal The European Astronomical Society (EAS) awards the 2020 Tycho Brahe Medal to Prof....
Feb 26, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder takes first steps on journey to space The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft has taken the first steps on the journey that will...
May 23, 2013
 ESA’s next large mission: LISA white paper submitted We have come remarkably far using light of different spectrums as our tool for observing...
Aug 15, 2016
 U.S. National Academies Report recommends NASA restore support for LISA New Worlds New Horizons: A Midterm Assessment – the National Academies released their...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Dec 08, 2023
 Positions Research Associate Optics (m/f/x) - optical technologies, photonics, physics, astrophysics or related subjects
Apr 27, 2014
 Papers Environmental Effects for Gravitational-wave Astrophysics
Positions ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme
May 26, 2024
 Conferences 16th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, May 26 -June 1, 2024, La Biodola, Italy
Nov 21, 2023
 Positions PostDoc position in Gravitational Wave Physics at Nikhef
Jan 18, 2013
 Papers On the complementarity of pulsar timing and space laser interferometry for the individual detection of supermassive black hole binaries
Apr 26, 2023
 Positions Flight Software Engineer (m/f/d) “Scientific Instrumentation for Space Applications” at AEI
Oct 19, 2023
 Positions PhD positions in “Gravity & Matter at the Extreme” at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam
Nov 30, 2023
 Positions Permanent position Research Engineer (CNRS Mobility)
Sep 26, 2016
 Papers The effect of matter structure on the gravitational waveform
Sep 06, 2023
 Positions Post Doctoral Associate at University of Florida
Nov 02, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position at IGFAE, Santiago de Compostela
Dec 08, 2023
 Positions Research Associate Engineering (m/f/x) - mechanical engineering, technical mechanics or related subjects
Jan 06, 2012
 Papers LISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
Positions Fellowships at the Nottingham Centre of Gravity

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