LightSail 2, Pushed by Sunlight, Raises Its Orbit by 10,500 Feet in Just Two Weeks
LightSail 2 over Baja, California. Image: Planetary SocietyTwo weeks after entering solar sailing mode, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 spacecraft has managed to raise its orbit by nearly 2 miles, in an important test of this promising new means of propulsion.LightSail 2 unfurled its 32-square-meter (344-square-foot) solar sail on July 23, around one month after…