France, June 17 -- Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed a €263 million contract with prime contractor OHB System AG for the development of key elements for ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves.LISA will detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity generated by massive accelerating objects, with a sensitivity and in a frequency range that cannot be measured from the ground. This groundbreaking mission will enable scientists to study gravitational waves generated by many different types of events, from interacting compa...