French satellite puts Einstein to the test

A Russian rocket carrying a French satellite to test a German theory is scheduled for launch on Friday. At 21:02 GMT, the Soyuz rocket will blast off from Kourou, Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, carrying the experiment. Microscope, which stands for Micro-Satellite à traînée Compensée pour l’Observation du Principe d’Equivalence, is designed to test the very heart of Einstein’s 1915 theory of general relativity, which gives us our best description yet of gravity. Known as the principle of equivalence, it is derived from Galileo’s 17th century experiment to drop different masses from a tower to show that both hit the ground at the same time. More

(Source: The Guardian - Apr 22)