General Relativity in Space and Sensitive Tests of the Equivalence Principle

Abstract

An introduction into the fundamental quests addressed in space missions is given. These quests are the exploration of the relativistic gravitational field, the Universality of Free Fall, the Universality of the Gravitational Redshift, Local Lorentz Invariance, the validity of Einstein's field equations, etc. In each case, the correspoding missions take advantage of the space conditions which are essential for the improvement of the accuracy of the experiments as compared to experiments on ground. A list and a short description of past, current and planned projects is given. Also the key technologies employed in space missions are addressed.