LightSail 2 – Spaceflight Now

October 17, 2025

Breaking News

[ October 17, 2025 ] Orion spacecraft arrives at VAB ahead of stacking for Artemis 2 Mission Reports
[ October 15, 2025 ] SpaceX sends 28 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit in predawn launch Falcon 9
[ October 14, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 2nd batch of satellites for Space Development Agency following weather scrub Falcon 9
[ October 14, 2025 ] Rocket Lab launches 7th StriX Earth observation satellites for Japan-based Synspective Electron
[ October 14, 2025 ] SpaceX launches final Version 2 Starship-Super Heavy rocket Mission Reports

LightSail team declares success in solar sail experiment

August 1, 2019 Stephen Clark

The gentle push of sunlight is slowly changing the orbit of the Planetary Society’s crowd-funded LightSail 2 satellite after it unfurled a thin solar sail the size of a boxing ring last week, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Privately-funded spacecraft now solar sailing in Earth orbit

July 26, 2019 Stephen Clark

A nanosatellite launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket last month has unfurled a solar sail membrane and is using light pressure from the sun to change its orbit around Earth, pioneering techniques that could be used by future missions traveling to the sun’s stellar neighbors.