LightSail 2 will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy no sooner than June 24th. Keep an eye on the site for the latest news and a link to the live stream when it’s almost time for takeoff.

LightSail 2 is not humanity’s first success at sailing on sunbeams. That honor goes to IKAROS, a roughly 50-foot by 50-foot Japanese spacecraft weighing hundreds of pounds.

LightSail will then tack like a sailboat in order to raise its altitude, which will earn it the distinction of being the first spacecraft to sail to a higher orbit around our planet.

These ultrathin sails could achieve speeds never before imagined. But building and testing these sails is a complex undertaking. “The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft ...

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 has already built up a gallery’s worth of images from its 450-mile-high orbit, including glorious views of Earth’s ocean-blue and cloud-white disk.

"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft, with potential to eventually open interstellar distances to direct spacecraft exploration," Caltech's Harry Atwater, the Otis Booth ...

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.

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.

LightSail-A will be followed next year by a more ambitious outing, known as LightSail-B. LightSail-B will be launched into a higher orbit, as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

LightSail Energy has appointed two industry veterans to its executive ranks, as the energy storage startup looks to ramp up sales of its technology. It represents a new phase and test for the five ...