maybe he should have taken 3 decades..

This is indeed a very important experiment.

FTA "The electrostatic patches also cause small torques on the gyroscopes, particularly when the space vehicle axis of symmetry is not aligned with the gyroscope spin axes. Torques cause the spin axes of the gyroscopes to change orientation, and in certain circumstances, this effect can look like the relativity signal GP-B measures."

So.... rotating, electrically charged bodies create torques that look like gravitational effects. Would that not make a rotating galaxy made of plasma change its rotational speed based on electrical charge distribution?

take it closer to home.

How would this "effect" have on 'earth' based objects?

proved true again and again.

WAS EINSTEIN RIGHT OR ARE THE AXIOMS TRUE?

One day scientists may discover that neither Einstein nor the theory as a whole are tested but, rather, "the so-called axioms":

Einstein: "Guided by empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought which, in general, is built up logically from a small number of fundamental assumptions, the so-called axioms."

So in the present case scientist would ask: Is the geodetic effect confirmed by this experiment consistent or inconsistent with Einstein's 1911 discovery that the speed of light varies with the gravitational potential:

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae13.cfm :
"So, it is absolutely true that the speed of light is _not_ constant in a gravitational field [which, by the equivalence principle, applies as well to accelerating (non-inertial) frames of reference]. If this were not so, there would be no bending of light by the gravitational field of stars. One can do a simple Huyghens reconstruction of a wave front, taking into account the different speed of advance of the wavefront at different distances from the star (variation of speed of light), to derive the deflection of the light by the star.
Indeed, this is exactly how Einstein did the calculation in:
"On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light," Annalen der Physik, 35, 1911.
which predated the full formal development of general relativity by about four years. This paper is widely available in English. You can find a copy beginning on page 99 of the Dover book "The Principle of Relativity." You will find in section 3 of that paper, Einstein's derivation of the (variable) speed of light in a gravitational potential, eqn (3). The result is,
c' = c0 ( 1 + V / c^2 )
where V is the gravitational potential relative to the point where the speed of light c0 is measured."

Then scientists would apply the equivalence principle and, provided they have answered the first question, would answer the most important question: Is the geodetic effect confirmed by this experiment consistent or inconsistent with Einstein's principle of constancy of the speed of light:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ : "...light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body."

Pentcho Valev
pvalev@yahoo.com

It was an important experiment BUT it seems to have more problems than can be allowed in any justifiable empirical results. Anyone not wanting to believe the results will simply blame the poor mechanics.

This is supercool and all, but didn't they verify gravity lensing in like 1912? Isn't this just verifying it with much more precision?

Typical scientists! Hogging the data for two years so that no one else can analyse it. Certainly makes sure that your analysis gets the headline.

Isn't it normal that the charges create gravitational like effects ?
Look at the Reissner Nordstrom solution of the field equations.
The charge add extra terms in the energy tensor, so they have influence on the curvature, and thus add to the gravitational like effect.