A Vega rocket bearing a European prototype satellite blasted into space on a mission to search for ripples in space and across time, a phenomenon predicted but never proven by physicist Albert Einstein 100 years ago. The trailblazing Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, spacecraft will spend about six months testing a technique to detect ripples in space and across time. The ripples, known as gravitational waves, are caused by massive celestial bodies warping space, similar to a bowling ball rolling across a trampoline.

LISA Pathfinder is also expected to pave the way for an even more ambitious project that would set up an observatory in space, a gravitational wave detector that would be the world’s largest man-made structure ever.

The LISA Pathfinder mission, which costs about 400 million euros ($423.7 million), will send the spacecraft about 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) toward the sun over about six weeks, where it will assume an orbit that keeps it right between the sun and Earth. Once it is in place, it will collect data for six months that scientists hope will reveal gravitational waves.

ESA expects around 50 scientists to visit ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, next year to work with LISA. LISA Pathfinder was the sixth launch for the four-stage Vega European rocket, which made its debut in 2012.