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Saturday, December 11, 2010

MicroSpace news: NASA ejects one satellite from another

Very cool: a small satellite ejects a "nanosatellite" in space. The nanosat will test a tiny solar sail.
UPDATE: Nanosat-D, which was supposed to unfurl a 100-square-foot solar sail ffrom a container the size of a bread loaf, appears to have a probelem. NASA originally said it deployed on schedule for the parent FASTSAT, but it's not transmitting and has yet to be located.
COMMENT: Solar sail experiments seem to suffer from an ongoing jinx. The idea of solar sail propulsion has yet to be tested on orbit despite several attempts.

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