L3Harris wins NASA contract to build telescopes for ESA's LISA mission
NASA awarded L3Harris a contract to build all-glass telescopes for ESA's LISA gravitational-wave observatory.
what happened
NASA awarded L3Harris a contract, announced October 8, to design, assemble, integrate, and test all-glass telescopes for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, per L3Harris's own release. Each of LISA's three spacecraft will carry two L3Harris telescopes capable of transmitting and receiving precision laser beams; the company has already built a full-scale prototype. ESA leads LISA, with NASA as a collaborative partner contributing the telescopes and other hardware; ESA has separately selected Germany's OHB and Thales Alenia Space to build the three-spacecraft mission, which is expected to launch in the mid-2030s.
why it matters
LISA will be the first space-based gravitational-wave detector, and the contract keeps a US supplier embedded in an ESA-led flagship science mission, continuing a supply chain L3Harris has worked on since early telescope development units.
for who
Space-telescope and optics suppliers, ESA/NASA science-mission contractors