LARES
LARES is ASI’s passive laser-ranging mission for testing Earth’s frame dragging and supporting geodesy. Launched on the first Vega flight in February 2012, the dense tungsten-alloy satellite returns ground-station laser pulses through 92 reflectors. Analysis combines its orbital motion with LAGEOS observations and terrestrial gravity-field models to isolate the small relativistic signal.
Follow this mission
Schedule, status, and mission updates. Time-based alerts will start when a time is available.
Identity
- Aliases
- Laser Relativity SatelliteLARES 1
- Name
- LARES
- Status
- active
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- LARES is ASI’s passive laser-ranging mission for testing Earth’s frame dragging and supporting geodesy. Launched on the first Vega flight in February 2012, the dense tungsten-alloy satellite returns ground-station laser pulses through 92 reflectors. Analysis combines its orbital motion with LAGEOS observations and terrestrial gravity-field models to isolate the small relativistic signal.
- Destination
- Nearly circular Earth orbit, about 1450 km altitude and 69.5-degree inclination
- Programs
- -
- Start Date
- 2012-02-13
- Vehicle Families
Links
- Official Url
- https://www.asi.it/en/earth-science/lares/
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- October 29, 2026 at 16:05:17 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 16:05:17 UTC
Other
- Affiliations
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles