#lightsail 2

LightSail 2 Mission is Going Strong and Sending Mission Info Home!

On June 25th, 2019, The Planetary Society‘s cubesat spacecraft known as LightSail 2 lifted off from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. This was the second solar sail launched the Society, the first (LightSail 1) having been sent into space in 2015. Like its predecessor, the purpose of this spacecraft is to demonstrate the technology that would allow for solar sails operating within Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Since reaching orbit, the LightSail 2 has been indicated that it is in good working order, as indicated by the Mission Control Dashboard recently introduced by The Planetary Society. In addition to establishing two-way communications with mission controllers and passing a battery of checkouts, the spacecraft also took its first pictures of Earth (and some selfies for good measure).

LightSail 2 is the third attempt to send a light sail spacecraft into orbit by the global non-profit society, which is devoted to promoting space exploration and the technologies that enable it. The first was Cosmos 1, a larger lightsail that launched in 2005, but which failed to reach its intended orbit due to an unforeseen failure with the rocket.

Since reaching orbit, the Planetary Society has been providing regular updates on the mission. The public is also encouraged to get status reports from the spacecraft in near-real-time using the LightSail 2 Mission Control dashboard that recently went live. Updates are transmitted from the craft every few seconds via a 334-line text file containing health and status information.

We Just Got Incredible New Photos of Our Lonely Little World From LightSail 2.

“LightSail 2 is a technology demonstration mission for the most part. And it's been successful so far. In January 2020, the Planetary Society released a paper outlining the mission results. In brief, LightSail 2's solar sails are working, though the spacecraft is still expected to fall to Earth within a year of launch.

The spacecraft carries cameras, of course. Those cameras are there primarily to check on the solar sails. But while doing that, they're capturing some delicious photos of Earth in the background.”

LightSail 2 spacecraft ends solar-sailing mission in a blaze of glory | Space

The LightSail 2 spacecraft will ride on sunshine no more.

The Planetary Society's crowdfunded solar sailing craft re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Thursday morning (Nov.17) after nearly 3.5 years in orbit — more than three times longer than its designed mission life.

The LightSail 2 team has received no communications from the spacecraft since that date, leading them to conclude that the shoebox-sized craft had finally given up the ghost after completing 18,000 orbits and traveling about 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) around our planet.

RIP, LightSail 2! You were the Kickstarter I was most proud of.

The reentry completes a mission of nearly three-and-a-half years, during which LightSail 2 showed that it could change its orbit using the gentle push of sunlight, a technique known as solar sailing. LightSail 2 demonstrated that small spacecraft can carry, deploy, and utilize relatively large solar sails for propulsion.