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We report the first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment. The results demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density of 5.2±0.1 fm s−2/Hz, or (0.54±0.01)×10−15 g/Hz, with g the standard gravity, for frequencies between 0.7 and 20 mHz. This value is lower than the LISA Pathfinder requirement by more than a factor 5 and within a factor 1.25 of the requirement for the LISA mission, and is compatible with Brownian noise from viscous damping due to the residual gas surrounding the test masses. Above 60 mHz the acceleration noise is dominated by interferometer displacement readout noise at a level of (34.8±0.3) fm/Hz, about 2 orders of magnitude better than requirements. At f≤0.5 mHz we observe a low-frequency tail that stays below 12 fm s−2/Hz down to 0.1 mHz. This performance would allow for a space-based gravitational wave observatory with a sensitivity close to what was originally foreseen for LISA. CNES 1316634/CNRS 103747 UnivEarthS Labex program/ANR-10-LABX-0023 UnivEarthS Labex program/ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02 DLR Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy/FKZ 50OQ0501 Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy/FKZ 50OQ1601 Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare AYA2010-15709 (MICINN) ESP2013-47637-P (MINECO) ESP2015-67234-P (MINECO) Fundacion General CSIC Swiss Space Office (SSO) Swiss National Science Foundation United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) University of Glasgow University of Birmingham Imperial College Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)