2013–2020: New Spacefaring Nations and Sample Return
LIGO first gravitational-wave detection
Opened gravitational-wave astronomy (included as a cross-disciplinary space-science milestone).
Era 5 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- year known only: 2015
- Lead / partner
- International
- Target
- Earth-based observatory
- Category
- Astronomy milestone
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- unknown
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- unknown
Why it happened
LIGO first gravitational-wave detection flew during 2013–2020: New Spacefaring Nations and Sample Return, as part of International's work toward earth-based observatory. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Opened gravitational-wave astronomy (included as a cross-disciplinary space-science milestone).
Results
Opened gravitational-wave astronomy (included as a cross-disciplinary space-science milestone).
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- LIGO Laboratory, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-24)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
