Jun 25, 2022
LightSail 2 celebrates 3rd space birthday as end of mission approaches
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
The mission, far beyond its design lifetime, may fall into the atmosphere in a few months.
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 25, 2019. It was expected to last a year in an assessment of how well a spacecraft could perform using only the power of the sun.