LISA Pathfinder

LISA Pathfinder was a European Space Agency mission launched on 3 December 2015 on a Vega rocket and operated until July 2017. It tested key technologies needed for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a planned ESA gravitational wave observatory. Its scientific phase began on 1 March 2016 and lasted almost sixteen months, and in June 2016 ESA announced that it had demonstrated that the LISA mission is feasible. The spacecraft carried the LISA Technology Package of inertial sensors, an interferometer and associated instrumentation, together with two drag-free control systems, one European using cold gas micro-thrusters and one American using colloid thrusters. It was assembled by Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, United Kingdom, under contract to ESA, with the integrated technology package provided by the company's Friedrichshafen site.