Status of the LARES and LARES 2 space experiments

LARES and LARES 2 are two laser-ranged satellites of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to test general relativity and gravitational physics. LARES was successfully launched on 13 February 2012 and provided a number of tests of an intriguing phenomenon predicted by General Relativity called “dragging of inertial frames”, or “frame-dragging”, with an accuracy of almost one per cent. LARES provided other tests of gravitational physics, among which a test of the equivalence principle with an accuracy of about one part in a billion, using materials never tested before and at unprecedented new ranges. LARES 2, of ASI, is ready for launch in 2022, to provide tests of dragging of inertial frames with an accuracy of almost one part in a thousand and other accurate tests of gravitational physics. In this paper, the latest results obtained with the LARES satellite are reported and a design comparison of LARES 2 with respect to the LARES satellite is described.