Today, the lock fingers that kept the two test masses on LISA Pathfinder secure during the launch and cruise phase were successfully unlocked. As planned, the two cubes are still attached to the spacecraft via an additional ...
Space Exploration
Feb 9, 2016
0
40
After a six-week journey, LISA Pathfinder arrived at its destination today, an orbit around a point of balance in space where it will soon start testing technologies crucial for exploring the gravitational Universe.
Space Exploration
Jan 25, 2016
0
8
While some technologies were created to make spacecraft move billions of miles, the Disturbance Reduction System has the opposite goal: To keep a spacecraft as still as possible.
Space Exploration
Jan 22, 2016
0
7
This timelapse video shows teams from ESA and Airbus Defence and Space (the prime contractor for LISA Pathfinder) carrying out a simulation of the commissioning of the LISA Technology Package, the scientific heart of the ...
Space Exploration
Jan 13, 2016
0
6
ESA's LISA Pathfinder lifted off earlier today on a Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its way to demonstrate technology for observing gravitational waves from space.
Space Exploration
Dec 3, 2015
0
12
Final preparations are under way at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, for the launch of LISA Pathfinder, ESA's technology demonstrator that will pave the way for detecting gravitational waves from space. Liftoff ...
Space Exploration
Dec 1, 2015
0
8
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope's "pathfinder telescope," or "Pathfinder" completed its second super-cold optical test that resulted in the first checkout of specialized optical test equipment designed to illuminate ...
Space Exploration
Nov 30, 2015
0
94
ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission is a technology demonstrator that will pave the way for future spaceborne gravitational-wave observatories. It will operate about 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun, orbiting the first ...
Space Exploration
Nov 26, 2015
0
14
LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for future missions by testing in flight the very concept of gravitational wave detection: it will put two test masses in a near-perfect gravitational free-fall and control and measure their ...
Space Exploration
Nov 16, 2015
0
39
Testing is crucial part of NASA's success on Earth and in space. So, as the actual flight components of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope come together, engineers are testing the non-flight equipment to ensure that tests ...
Space Exploration
Oct 15, 2015
0
39
