Europe’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, carrying high-tech thrusters and ultra-sensitive motion sensors to be used in a future gravitational wave detection mission, blasted off from French Guiana early Thursday aboard a nearly 100-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket.
After lifting off at 0404 GMT Thursday (1:04 a.m. French Guiana time; 11:04 p.m. EDT Wednesday), the four-stage Vega booster turned east and accelerated into orbit with LISA Pathfinder, deploying the satellite an hour and 45 minutes later.
Read our full launch story for details on LISA Pathfinder’s pioneering mission.
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSGPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
Lockheed Martin will build two communications satellites for Saudi Arabia’s Arabsat, and Arianespace and SpaceX will launch the commercial relay platforms under contracts valued at $650 million announced Wednesday.
Vibration testing on the James Webb Space Telescope, the multibillion-dollar successor to Hubble, has resumed after engineers traced a problem that cropped up last month to a restraint holding part of the observatory’s giant segmented mirror in place for launch.
Arianespace will pair a Peruvian military reconnaissance satellite with a package of four commercial Skybox Earth imaging spacecraft on a Vega rocket launch in 2016.
