Among the many spacecraft and satellites ascending to space on Monday's Falcon Heavy launch, the Planetary Society's LightSail 2 may be the most interesting. If all goes well, a week from launch ...

Crowdfunded spacecraft LightSail 2 is making good on its name, after successfully unfurling its solar sail in orbit so that it can begin propelling itself using the force of light alone.

The LightSail 2 spacecraft has successfully changed orbits using only the power of sunlight, opening the door to a new, cost-effective way to propel small craft.

These ultrathin sails could achieve speeds never before imagined. But building and testing these sails is a complex ...

LightSail 2 unfurled its 32-square-meter (344-square-foot) solar sail on July 23, around one month after it was deposited into low Earth orbit by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

LightSail 2 was packed aboard the Falcon Heavy as part of a larger payload called Prox-1 and delivered to orbit on June 25. Since then, the spacecraft has been going through checkouts and snapping ...

According to the scientists behind the project, LightSail 2 has successfully raised the highest point of its orbit, and it did so without any conventional built-in propulsion system.

The private organization, headed by Bill Nye, launched LightSail on May 20 aboard an Atlas V rocket. Two days later the "cube sat" went silent due to a suspected software glitch .

LightSail 2 is the first steerable solar sail ever launched into orbit around Earth. Its solar sail is about the size of a boxing ring, and made from a thin mylar material. It blossomed on Tuesday ...

A lightsail is a large reflective surface deployed in front of a spacecraft, where it can harness either sunlight or light from an Earth-based laser to continually accelerate the vehicle. In theory, ...