After more than three years circling the Earth, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission has come to an end following a fiery reentry. The satellite was an important tech demo for the idea of solar ...

LightSail 2 spacecraft captured this image on June 11, 2022, which shows Madagascar and a portion of Mozambique. Image: The Planetary Society For the past three years, a tiny loaf-of-bread-sized ...

A tiny spacecraft is about to sail into its demise, burning up as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere for the end of its mission. The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 has been getting dragged down by the ...

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 spacecraft sprang loose from its Prox-1 carrier vehicle as planned today, and sent its first signals back to mission control at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in ...

A solar-sailing mission is now marking three years of spaceflight, but is unlikely to celebrate a fourth anniversary. The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 is a crowdfunded solar sail that launched June ...

After three years in space, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission burned up in the atmosphere on Thursday, November 17th. During its mission, the crowdfunded spacecraft made 18,000 orbits of the ...

After 18,000 trips around the world, the spacecraft ends its journey. This, however, won’t be the end of solar sailing in space. By Sara Kiley Watson Published Nov 18, 2022 11:20 AM EST Get the ...

NASA on Tuesday said it's investing $2 million over two years to advance the development of a new solar sail concept called diffractive lightsailing. With diffractive lightsails, NASA could ...

Lightsails were once a thing of science fiction, evolving through several variations over the last 40 years. Now, science fiction is becoming reality. Advances in laser technology and new ultrastrong, ...