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
Dec 03, 2015
 LISA Pathfinder launches successfully on 3 Dec 2015 LISA Pathfinder lifted off on Ariane Spaceflight VV06 atop the sixth Vega rocket on 3...
Jun 07, 2016
 European Space Agency: LISA Pathfinder exceeds expectations Press Release by the European Space Agency: ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission has...
Nov 11, 2014
 Inertial sensors of the LISA Pathfinder mission delivered Important step forward: CGS SpA deliveres theinertial sensors of the LISA Pathfinder...
Oct 15, 2015
 #2: Fasten your belts! During the first week of activities at Kourou, the LISA Pathfinder team have focused on...
Nov 13, 2011
 LISA Pathfinder takes major step in hunt for gravitational waves Sensors destined for ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission in 2014 have exceeded expectations in...

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Conferences, publications and positions

Date News topic Imagesort descending Title
Oct 25, 2005
 Papers Expected coalescence rates of NS-NS binaries for laser beam interferometers
Oct 19, 2022
 Positions Postdoc at Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover
Aug 23, 2023
 Positions Assistant Professor in Neutrino Physics, Particle Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Gravitational Waves at UC Riverside
Sep 19, 2023
 Positions Postdoc positions in gravitational-wave astronomy at Milano-Bicocca
Apr 29, 2014
 Papers Strong Binary Pulsar Constraints on Lorentz Violation in Gravity
Jun 06, 2023
 Positions Tenure track position in multimessenger (incl. GWs) astrophysics at SISSA
Sep 06, 2023
 Positions Post Doctoral Associate at University of Florida
Papers LISA Brown Bag & GW Notes
Positions New Gravitational Wave Physics MSc at Cardiff University
May 27, 2024
 Conferences GWPAW 2024 - Save the Date! May 27-31 in Tel Aviv
Sep 13, 2023
 Positions Postdoc position: novel interferometric sensing techniques and seismic noise mitigation in a torsion balance at AEI Hannover
Mar 07, 2011
 Papers A source-free integration method for black hole perturbations and self-force computation: Radial fall
Jan 24, 2023
 Positions Open positions at the Max Plack Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Hannover, Germany in experimental and instrumental physics
Nov 27, 2023
 Conferences 32nd Workshop on General Relativity and Gravitation, November 27 - December 1, 2023 in Japan
Sep 21, 2023
 Positions Postdoctoral Fellowship in Gravitation at UT Austin

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