Rocket Loaded With Solar Sail and Satellites Blasts Off From Alaska

[Steve Knight]

Rocket Loaded With Solar Sail and Satellites Blasts Off From Alaska
By Mike Wall
SPACE.com Senior Writer
posted: 19 November 2010
08:25 pm ET

This NASA craft — short for Fast, Affordable Science and Technology Satellite — weighs about 325 pounds (148 kilograms) and is about the size of a washing machine. It's part of a broader NASA effort to find ways to perform research in space cheaply and reliably.

The agency spent less than $12 million developing the spacecraft, agency officials have said.

FASTSAT is carrying six different scientific experiments. One of those is a smaller satellite called NanoSail-D, an 8.5-pound (3.9-kg) probe designed to eject from FASTSAT and deploy a solar sail in orbit. Solar sails catch photons from the sun much as ships' sails catch the wind.

NanoSail-D will use its solar sail to deorbit itself, potentially demonstrating a new way to bring satellites and debris back to Earth without any chemical propellant, NASA officials have said.