A small experimental spacecraft that uses a shiny sail to reflect sunlight to propel itself came back to life Saturday afternoon after a series of near-death experiences. In a rush to finish the mission before anything else goes wrong, the team behind the craft prepared to deploy the sail on Sunday afternoon.
The craft, called LightSail, is operated and financed by the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes space exploration.
“It’s exciting,” said William Sanford Nye, the society’s chief executive, who is better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy. “It’s anxious. It’s anxiety producing.”
After its latest revival, the spacecraft on Sunday continued sending data to ground stations in California and Georgia, leading to the engineers’ decision to send the command to deploy the sail shortly after 2 p.m. Eastern time.
To read more, click here.