NEW YORK: A small spacecraft designed to test solar sail technology in Earth orbit has taken flight in a successful launch.
The Planetary Society’s revolutionary LightSail vehicle took off on an Atlas V rocket today, and it will later unfurl its giant sail in orbit and test how effective the sun is at pushing it.
If it works, the technology could signal a breakthrough in space propulsion and will allow vehicles to explore distant destinations, such as the moon and Mars, at very low cost.
LightSail was designed by a Californian non-government organisation called The Planetary Society.
The launch took place on United Launch Alliance’s 206ft (63 metres) Atlas V rocket at 4:05pm BST (11:05am ET) from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
At its core is a tiny ‘craft’ made up of three ‘CubeSats’, which are essentially tiny spacecraft that can be launched relatively cheaply.
