Video: Highlights of weekend’s Delta 2 launch

One of five CubeSats deployed from the International Space Station last month is testing a steerable drag brake that could find use in future smallsats to return experiment samples to the ground from low Earth orbit, or on low-cost micro-probes to explore other planets.

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) will test materials and a deployable system for a solar sail-style propulsion system. Liftoff from New Zealand happened at 10:32 a.m. NZT on April 24 (6:32 p.m. EDT, 2232 UTC on April 23).

NASA re-established contact with a wayward sun-watching science satellite Sunday nearly two years after the spacecraft suddenly dropped off line during a test, the agency said in a statement Monday.