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| Lightsail 2 by EC Holm |
When Lightsail 2 launched a year ago and first set sail, it was evident that the team had on their hands that an orbit that was less than ideal. Their perigee was low. With a craft that had rocket propulsion, this would have been no problem at all. Lightsail 2 has kryptonite that rockets do not, the source of propulsion is coming from one direction. The craft can only get a push from the Sun on one side of the planet, so it cannot circularize its orbit without the help of additional thrusters. The craft was only able to increase the eccentricity of its orbit, increase the apogee while the perigee decreases. Lightsail 2 was expected to deorbit after a few months, but it didn’t. Its mission control team pulled a rabbit out of a hat and minimized the altitude reduction as the craft made passed through its perigee thus extending its mission life. It has now been over a year. That's amazing. Congratulations to the Planetary Society and to the Lightsail 2 team.
Check out their mission control website: https://www.planetary.org/blogs/lightsail-2-extended-mission.html
Check out the one year in space celebration video by the Lightsail 2 team: https://youtu.be/Y4k1p0-59WE
