In September 2015 the twin ‘Advanced LIGO’ observatories allowed the first direct detection of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. The waves detected originated from the collision and merger of two black holes 1.3 billion light years from earth. This detection marked the start of new field of gravitational astrophysics, in the 100th anniversary year of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. This talk will discuss the first and second detections, the status of observations since then, plans for the global network of Advanced gravitational wave detectors and what the future of the field might look like.