VIDEO: Meet LightSail - 'Loaf  of bread' sized spacecraft to utilize a solar sail and travel by light

02/01/2015 - 00:00

The Planetary Society today announced the first of its LightSail spacecraft will embark on a May 2015 test flight. Funded entirely by private citizens, the solar sail satellite will hitch a ride to space aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission will test LightSail’s critical functions, a precursor to a second mission slated for 2016. That second flight will mark the first controlled, Earth-orbit solar sail flight and ride along with the first operational launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

READ MORE ON PLANETARY SOCIETY

LEARN MORE ABOUT LIGHTSAIL