LightSail-1 backup being built

Louis Friedman, program director for LightSail-1, has announced that a back-up craft to LightSail-1 will be built, instead of an investment in insurance for an estimated cost of $200,000.

As previously announced in July 2010 by AMSAT News, LightSail-1 is planned to be launched in early 2011.

LightSail-1 is a three Cubesat spacecraft (the size of a shoebox, and the proposed AMSAT Fox).

It will use UHF frequencies for tracking and command control stations.

California Polytechnic University is supplying the Cubesat bus, avionics and launch vehicle P-POD interface;.

Georgia Tech University is leading the mission operations, Dave Spencer serving as mission manager;

Stellar Exploration, Inc. led by Tomas Svitek is building LightSail-1; Jim Cantrell of Strategic Space Systems is project manager; and Louis D. Friedman is the LightSail-1 program director.

For further information on this Planetary Society program: http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/
innovative_technologies/solar_sailing/

Thanks to Amsat and Greg, W9GB, for the above information

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