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"The launch of the three spacecraft is planned for 2035, on an Ariane 6 rocket."

• JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  Wait, is this Eurospeak for never? (We schedule Moon landings the same way across the pond.) Less flippantly, is LISA funded?
  • timeagain 3y ago
    From the PR, it sounds like contractors will be chosen in the next year, which sounds funded to me. But I don’t know Eurospeak either…
  • SiempreViernes 3y ago
    The funding status of big science collaborations is always a bit opaque, as there are a lot of individual actors with independent funding streams, and there's always a lot of R&D, the cost of which you can only guess in advance. Formally ESA has moved the LISA project into a "implementation phase", meaning they intend to build it, but no money has been "pledged" as far as I know. However, LISA is a flagship Space Science programme, and the SSPs are part of the ESA budget all member states must contribute to. Basically there's a fixed, overall budget that is then split for each project adopted. So there is definitely money but I'm not sure there is a public statement that "this particular pile of money belongs to LISA"
  • eigenket 3y ago
    My understanding is that ESA has agreed to fund their portion, but other partners haven't finished that process yet - e.g. the UK's science agency has to go to the treasury and make a case for it. Similar with NASA & the other partners involved.