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25 January 2024
On 25 January 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) formally adopted the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) as a mission, enabling the commencement of construction of the scientific instruments and spacecraft. The launch of the three spacecraft is planned for 2035, on an Ariane 6 rocket.
LISA will detect gravitational waves in the yet-unexplored window between 0.1 mHz and 1 Hz, which is inaccessible to ground-based detectors. Waves in this frequency range are created in the collision and merger of two massive black holes, a million or more Solar masses, lurking at the centers of distant galaxies. LISA will be sensitive to these mergers across the Universe's history, directly probing the yet-unknown origin and growth of massive black holes. Unique to LISA is the detection of gravitational waves from stellar black holes swirling around massive ones in galactic nuclei (EMRIs), to probe the geometry of spacetime and test gravity in its foundations. LISA will also detect a large number of binary and multiple compact objects in our Galaxy to tell us about stellar binary evolution, and "see" the Galaxy beyond the Galactic Center, including many objects invisible to all other astronomical instruments.
NASA will provide several key components of LISA’s instrument suite along with science and engineering support. NASA contributions include lasers, telescopes, and devices to reduce disturbances from electromagnetic charges.
You can read more about LISA, and NASA’s involvement in it, on the press release page.