17 June 2025 – Thales Alenia Space has signed a €263 million contract with prime contractor OHB System AG for the development of key elements for ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves. LISA will detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity generated by massive accelerating objects, with sensitivity and in a frequency range that cannot be measured from the ground. Thales Alenia Space will provide prime contractor OHB System AG with several mission-critical elements, including the spacecraft avionics and control software, the telecommunication system, and the drag-free and attitude control system (DFACS). The DFACS is a core component of the LISA mission. It will perform the “constellation acquisition” operation, consisting in establishing and maintaining the laser links between the satellites, and will compensate the non-gravitational forces on the spacecraft, such as solar radiation pressure, so that the test masses follow a purely geodesic motion along the satellite-to-satellite direction. Read more