Status of LIGO at the start of the fifth science run

In November 2005, the LIGO interferometer network began data taking for its latest data run (S5). All three interferometers are working at design sensitivities with duty cycles expected to reach 80%. The Hanford 4 km detector regularly achieves a 1.4 x 1.4M circle dot neutron star inspiral range of 12 Mpc. The S5 data run will record one year of coincident science data at unprecedented sensitivity ending in mid 2007.