Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Long before anyone considered exploring space with thrusters ...

Artist's concept of the Planetary Society's LightSail CubeSat in orbit. LightSail suffered a software glitch shortly after its May 20, 2015 launch but came back online after about a week of silence. A ...

In orbit since 2019, LightSail 2 is expected to burn up in the atmosphere at some point within the next few months. Reading time 3 minutes For the past three years, a tiny loaf-of-bread-sized ...

The Planetary Society's tiny LightSail spacecraft has sent a photo of its deployed solar sail down to Earth, confirming that the cubesat's shakeout flight has been a complete success. The outlook wasn ...

LightSail 2 will be very shiny after it deploys its sail. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The Planetary Society's solar-sailing ...

The LightSail 2 solar-powered spacecraft is officially operational — it’s now in orbit and made its first contact with Earth on Tuesday. You’ll now be able to track the ship live using an online ...

NASA may have ruled that Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever spotted in our system is a "metallic or rocky object" approximately 400 meters (1,312 feet) in length and 40 meters (131 feet) ...

The latest experiment to explore the concept of “solar sailing” — space travel propelled by particles of quantum light that radiate from our sun — will take place next week as scientists test a ...