Projection exposure apparatus comprising a manipulator system

A microlithographic projection exposure apparatus comprises a mask holder (20) for holding a mask (18), a substrate holder (26) for holding a substrate (24), and a projection lens (22) having a plurality of optical elements (R1-R4) for imaging mask structures of the mask onto the substrate, wherein each of the optical elements, the mask holder, and the substrate holder is a beam path element in an exposure beam path of the projection exposure apparatus. Furthermore, the projection exposure apparatus comprises a manipulator system (M1-M4) for setting at least one travel (p1-p24) at at least one of the beam path elements (R1-R4, 20, 26) in at least one manipulator degree of freedom; at least one measuring device (E1-E24) for measuring at least one measured variable (e1-e24), which serves to determine the at least one travel setting (p1-p24) of the manipulator system; and a control device (44) configured, for the purpose of correcting a specification (50) of a wavefront deviation of the projection lens using a m