On 3 December 2015, the European Space Agency launched LISA Pathfinder, a pioneering mission designed to test the technologies required to open a new window onto the Universe: the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves from space. Over its operational lifetime, LISA Pathfinder surpassed expectations, demonstrating with unprecedented precision that free-falling test masses could be shielded from all external forces, and that their motion could be tracked with picometre accuracy.
Now, ten years later, we come together to celebrate the success of this extraordinary mission, which laid the foundations for LISA, ESA’s future space-based gravitational wave observatory. LISA Pathfinder not only proved the feasibility of revolutionary instrumentation — from drag-free control to micro-newton thrusters — but also paved the way for a completely new form of astronomy. This anniversary is an opportunity to look back on a milestone in space science, and to look ahead to the scientific revolutions that LISA will bring.