Scientists have announced the recognition of gravitational waves for the first time on Earth. Gravitational waves are Einstein's ripples in space-time. The ripples are now echoing through NASA, compelling the organization to mend fences with the European Space Agency (ESA) and rejoin the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) to study gravitational waves from space.

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At the 11^th LISA symposium in Zürich, Switzerland this week, a NASA official said he was ready to rejoin the mission that they had left in 2011. LISA is currently trying to move the launch of the mission up several years from 2034.

LISA was originally conceived as a joint ESA-NASA mission. The two partners were supposed to cover 50 percent of the mission's cost, approximated at $2 billion. However, NASA dropped out of the partnership in April 2011 because of budgetary problems, and the mission was almost killed.

In 2013, ESA selected a trimmed-down $1.1 billion version of LISA as its L3 mission - the third largest mission in its Cosmic Vision 2020 program. Referred to as eLISA, it would have less capacity and understanding than the original design. The launch was set for 2034. But that could change now that NASA has expressed interest to be a minor partner, offering technological support.

Things have changed a lot in the past few years. The technology demonstrator of ESA, LISA Pathfinder, which was launched in December 2015, has performed well according to Paul McNamara, the mission's project scientist. In February this year, the ground-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory experiment announced that it had bagged its first direct detections.

In June, a NASA-appointed L3 Study Team presented its provisional report, recommending ways for the organization to rejoin the program as a senior partner. On Aug. 15, a midterm evaluation of the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) 2010 Decadal Report that reviews U.S. priorities for astronomy and astrophysics, strongly recommended NASA to restore support for the space observatory this decade.

It appears the recommendations are taking effect. During the Zürich conference, Paul Hertz, the director of NASA's astrophysics division, said, "2011 saw the dissolution of our original LISA partnership. But I'm here to move forward from that." NASA's contribution may not get back to 50%, but according to the NAS report, what's required is "a significantly larger U.S. contribution than the $150 million [...] currently being considered."