In November 2021, the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the KEK Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies signed a memorandum of cooperation for the cosmic mi-crowave background polarisation observation mission, LiteBIRD, which is a planned strategic large class project.

On December 2, 2021, KEK Director SAITO Naohito, Professor TOKUSHUKU Katsuo, Professor HAZUMI Masashi and Dr HIROTA Katsuya visited the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sci-ence to further promote this collaboration. While at ISAS, the visitors spoke with ISAS Director General KUNINAKA Hiroshi, Deputy Director General FUJIMOTO Masaki, Program Director SATO Eiichi, Researcher Director YOSHIDA Tetsuya, Associate Director General FUKAI Hiroshi and the Director of the Program Office, MOKUNO Masaaki about the future cooperation between the teams for the LiteBIRD satellite.

Everyone also had the opportunity to visit the facilities and laboratories at ISAS. The photograph above was taken with members of the LiteBIRD team.

LiteBIRD is a mission to obtain observational evidence of inflation by precisely measuring the dis-tribution of polarisation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that is expected to have been influenced by primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation in the moments after the Universe's birth. The detection of the presence of gravitational waves provides observational evidence that inflation occurred. The KEK Institute for Particle and Nuclear Studies and the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science will work together to further the LiteBIRD mission.