NASA, Partners Advance LISA Prototype Hardware
Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, this month completed testing on a second preliminary version of a key component of the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission.
The LISA mission, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA, will use infrared lasers to detect gravitational waves or ripples in the structure of space-time. The tests focused on the frequency reference system, supplied by BAE Systems, which will control the lasers connecting the three LISA spacecraft. Lasers must be fine-tuned to make precise measurements – to within a trillionth of a meter, called a picometer.
The team tested the first version of the system in May 2025.
“The extensive series of Frequency Reference System verifications last year was very successful,” said Ira Thorpe, LISA project scientist at NASA Goddard. “This second unit is identical, so our evaluations this time were less intense and foreshadow a future cross-verification of the two, which is the gold standard for verifying the stability of the system as a whole.”
In addition to the laser system, NASA is providing telescopes, devices to manage the build-up of electrical charge on board, and the framework that scientists will need to process the data generated by the mission.
NASA’s contributions are part of the agency’s efforts to innovate ambitious science missions that will help us better understand how the universe works. LISA will also offer a major advance in multimessenger astronomy, which allows scientists to explore cosmic signals other than light.
The three LISA spacecraft will fly in a vast triangular formation that follows Earth as it orbits the Sun. Each arm of the triangle will extend 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers).
Each spacecraft will contain two floating cubes inside called proof masses. The arrival of gravitational waves from throughout the universe will minutely modify the length of the arms of the triangle. Lasers connecting the cubes will measure changes in their separation at a distance less than that of a helium atom.
The enormous scale of the triangle will allow LISA to detect gravitational waves not found with ground-based installations, such as those generated when massive black holes merge at the centers of galaxies. Scientists can use the data to learn more about the distance and physical properties of a source.
The LISA mission is expected to launch in the mid-2030s.
By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
