Abstract: The detection of gravitational waves is one of the most anticipated topics in experimental astrophysics. The space-based detector LISA is a joint NASA/ESA mission managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Slated for launch in 2011, LISA is one of the main missions in NASA's "Beyond Einstein" initiative. The main objectives of the LISA mission is to survey and study massive black hole mergers out to large red shifts. Small black holes or neutron stars falling into a supermassive black hole can be used to measure the multipole moments of the central object. This will be a crucial test of the "no hair" theorem. LISA will also survey white dwarf and neutron star binaries in our own galaxy. I will give a brief overview over LISA technology, the R&D-program at GSFC, and present the status of LISA to date with an emphasis on recent results on the UF-GSFC collaborative program. I will also discuss our future plans to establish a university-based laboratory astrophysics program at the University of Florida. Research efforts to develop laser interferometry for many other formation flying missions such as the Black Hole Imager or the Terrestrial Planet Finder will also be discussed.