LightSail 2 – Spaceflight Now

August 25, 2019

Breaking News

[ August 24, 2019 ] Station crew to clear new port for second Soyuz docking attempt Mission Reports
[ August 24, 2019 ] Soyuz docking aborted at International Space Station Mission Reports
[ August 22, 2019 ] Five more Delta 4-Heavy flights in ULA backlog after final “single stick” launch Delta 4
[ August 22, 2019 ] Photos: Final “single stick” Delta 4 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Delta 4
[ August 22, 2019 ] Delta 4 rocket’s launch timeline with GPS 3 SV02 Delta 4

LightSail team declares success in solar sail experiment

August 1, 2019

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

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.