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In the News
LightSail In the NewsNovember 9-11, 2009. News that The Planetary Society has begun a new solar sailing program made headlines in major media outlets around the world this past week. LightSail garnered coverage in such publications as the New York Times, New Scientist, Scientific American, and in Associated Press and Reuter wire stories that appeared in hundreds of newspapers and websites. As our Executive Director Louis Friedman said, "We're back!" New York Times: Peter Pan would be so happy. If the launching of LightSail-1 goes off according to plan next year, humans may soon be solar-sailing, as shown in this illustration. About a year from now, if all goes well, a box about the size of a loaf of bread will pop out of a rocket some 500 miles above the Earth. There in the vacuum it will unfurl four triangular sails as shiny as moonlight and only barely more substantial. Then it will slowly rise on a sunbeam and move across the stars. Read more » New Scientist: Earlier this week, the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group in Pasadena, California, received an anonymous donation to build and launch a small solar-sail driven spacecraft... Read more » Associated Press: LOS ANGELES — Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the subtle pressure of sunlight...Read more » Christian Science Monitor: Its designers call it LightSail-1. And if it works as advertised, the solar sail project would represent a baby step toward humanity’s first starship...Read more » Scientific American: It's only fitting that on what would have been Carl Sagan's 75th birthday, an organization started by the astronomer famous for his wondrous and elegant descriptions of the universe announced plans to test a wondrous and elegant way to explore the solar system and well beyond... Read more » Spaceflight Now: Next year promises to be a banner year for solar sailing, with at least two experimental missions due for launch to demonstrate the novel use of light pressure from the sun for propulsion in space... Read more »
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