LISA Pathfinder

LISA Pathfinder, used to be called Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-2 (SMART-2), was a European Space Agency spacecraft that was launched on December 3, 2015.

More information

The mission tested technology needed for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), another mission by ESA that is planned to launch in 2035. The Vega rocket was used to launch LISA Pathfinder. The LISA Pathfinder was testing it's laser interferometer that would later be used for LISA.

LISA Pathfinder

A model of the LISA Pathfinder
Names	Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-2 (SMART-2)
Mission type	Technology demonstration
COSPAR ID	2015-070A
SATCAT no.	41043
Mission duration	576 days
Expedition
Began	December 3, 2015, 04:04:00 UTC
Start of mission
Rocket	Vega_(rocket)
End of mission
Disposal	Decommissioned
Deactivated	June 30, 2017
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Sun-Earth lagrange point
Periapsis	500,000 km
Apoapsis	800,000 km
Epoch	Planned
Horizon 2000+ ← Gaia (spacecraft) BepiColombo →

Related pages

• LISA, planned ESA space observatory.
• Einstien Telescope, a proposed gravitational wave detector.