LISA Pathfinder was an ESA technology test mission for the eLISA/NGO mission to search for gravitational waves generated by massive objects such as black holes. NASA contributed one of two payloads, named ST-7.
LISA Pathfinder paved the way for eLISA/NGO. It tested new methods of spacecraft control and determined if laser interferometry is feasible at the level of accuracy required by eLISA/NGO.
LISA Pathfinder placed two test-masses in a nearly perfect gravitational free-fall, for controlling and measuring their motion with unprecedented accuracy. This was achieved through state-of-the-art technology comprising inertial sensors, a laser metrology system, a drag-free control system, and an ultra-precise micro-propulsion system.
All these technologies are essential not only for eLISA/NGO—they also lie at the heart of any future space-based test of Einstein's General Relativity. LISA Pathfinder was launched in 2015.
The Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass for the International Space Station investigation, known as ISS-CREAM, places a highly successful balloon-borne instrument aboard the International Space Station where it gathers an order of magnitude (10 times) more data, which has lower background interference because Earth's atmosphere is no longer interfering. ISS-CREAM's instruments measure the charges of cosmic rays ranging from hydrogen up through iron nuclei, over a broad energy range. The modified balloon instrument is carried aloft on a Space X Dragon Lab cargo supply mission and placed on the Japanese Exposed Module for a period of at least three years.
Hitomi (formerly ASTRO-H) is an X-ray observation satellite that will explore the extreme universe, particularly high energy phenomena around black holes and supernova explosions, and clusters of galaxies filled with high-temperature plasma.
Rossi XTE Launch date: 30 December 1995 Decommissioned: 5 January 2012
WMAP Launch date: 30 June 2001 Last command received: 28 October 2010
NASA Missions Study What May Be a 1-In-10,000-Year Gamma-ray Burst
On Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022, a pulse of intense radiation swept through the solar system so exceptional that astronomers quickly dubbed it the BOAT – the brightest of all time. The source was a gamma-ray burst (GRB), the most powerful class of explosions in the universe. Read more.
