LightSail 2 Rockets into Orbit

The photogenic liftoff occurred early in the morning on June 25th and delivered LightSail 2 into the expected circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 723 kilometers.

The Planetary Society's citizen-funded LightSail 2 spacecraft launched successfully into low Earth orbit June 25th from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The liftoff occurred at 2:30 am EDT and carried a total of 24 satellites into 3 different orbits. The mission will test the first controlled flight by a solar sail in Earth orbit. Professor Spencer is the project manager for the LightSail 2 spacecraft and SFPL is supporting the mission operations and analysis.

LightSail 2 is initially contained within another spacecraft, Prox-1, built by the Georgia Institute of Technology to allow LightSail 2 to be deployed from a higher orbit more suitable for solar sailing. SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of Prox-1 at 07:49 UTC (3:49 AM EDT) into the planned near-circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 723 kilometers. Prox-1 will complete 100 orbits over the next week before deploying LightSail 2 to fly on its own. The LightSail 2 team will then begin preparations for deploying the solar sail and beginning sailing operations. SFPL will help support the mission by receiving and monitoring telemetry from the spacecraft as well as analyzing the outcome of the solar sailing experiment.

Additional details are available from Professor Spencer's mission manager blog and The Planetary Society.