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LPF_assembly_0008

LISA Pathfinder scientific payload integration at IABG, Germany June 2015

After more than 10 years of intense development, the highly sensitive scientific payload of the LISA Pathfinder Mission (LPF) was now completed and integrated into the satellite. The science instruments are the core of the mission.

Media Description: 

While the LPF scientists continue preparing for LPF mission operations, the industrial partner Airbus DS supervised by the European Space Agency (ESA) is running the final tests on the assembled spacecraft. Shipment to the ESA spaceport Kourou in French Guyana is planned in August and mission lift-off on a Vega launcher in the autumn. The mission operations phase will begin once LPF has reached its destination: for a period of several months the scientist will test the high-precision science instruments on board while maintaining regular contact with the satellite.

LISA Pathfinder is an ESA mission, with the European space industry and research institutions from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Great Britain as well as NASA participating.