Tech & Science Crowdfunded spacecraft LightSail 2 snaps amazing photos ahead of solar sail deployment

Since it was formed in 2002, Elon Musk’s SpaceX program has been making headlines for its reusable rockets. Here are some of the most stunning images from its previous missions.

(Pictured) The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, in a photograph taken by NASA astronaut Anne McClain aboard the International Space Station, on March 3, 2019.

The Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard, takes off during the Demo-1 mission, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S., on March 2, 2019. With only a dummy named Ripley on board, the launch was a dress rehearsal for the first manned test flight, scheduled for later this year with two NASA astronauts.

In this image taken from NASA Television, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft approaches the robotic arm for docking to the International Space Station, on Dec. 8, 2018.

How Brian O'Brien's lunar dust detector sketched on a whisky coaster made it to the moon

More than 50 years ago, on a flight between Los Angeles and Houston, physicist Brian O'Brien dreamed up the idea of a so-called lunar dust detector, and it was not long after that the Apollo astronauts were placing it on the moon.

Photos transmitted from The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft orbiting Earth confirm that it successfully deployed its solar sail . The spacecraft was launched from Florida last month and images from this week's deployment sequence were downlinked from the orbiter by flight controllers

‘The Science Guy’ explains a solar -powered space sail . An early astronomer’s dream was to sail on ‘the In June 2015 the society tested its own crowdfunded , flight-by-light spacecraft , LightSail 1. As this With this same feature of solar sailing , we could send a spacecraft outfitted with infrared

The Falcon 9 rocket (R) separates from the space craft (L) behind the rocket trail after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the SAOCOM 1A and ITASAT 1 satellites, as seen on Oct. 7, 2018, near Santa Barbara, California, U.S.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched just before dawn at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying supplies to the International Space Station, on June 29, 2018.

Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in operation, successfully completes a test launch in February 2018.

A flight-proven Falcon 9 carries a PAZ satellite from Spain and MicroSat-2a and 2b. The latter two are 400 kg demonstration units for SpaceX’s program to provide high-speed broadband internet around the world via satellites.

A cherry red Tesla roadster car, also manufactured by Elon Musk, is sent into space with a dummy driver – ‘Starman’ – on Feb. 7, 2018.

SpaceX launched the Zuma mission, a payload for an unidentified U.S. government agency, on Jan. 7, 2018.

Why doesn’t anyone live on the moon yet?

Solar storms, sharp sand, and near-weightlessness are just the tip of the iceberg.

The twilight effect from a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying 10 Iridium voice and data relay satellites is shown in a view from U.S. Highway 101 and Padaro Lane in Carpinteria, California, on Dec. 22, 2017.

Orbital Test Vehicle 5 Mission, on Sept. 7, 2017.

A handout photo made available by NASA shows the Dragon cargo craft attached to the Harmony module of the International Space Station after it arrived on Dec. 17, 2017.

The contrail of the Falcon 9 is seen after its launch on Dec. 22, 2017. A contrail refers to the line-shaped clouds produced by the exhaust of jet engines flying at distances of several miles above the Earth’s surface. Contrails are usually formed of water, in the form of ice crystals.

The Dragon cargo craft is seen attached to the Harmony module of the International Space Station after its arrival on Dec. 17, 2017.

SpaceX’s 40th Falcon 9 launch lands on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, a recovery craft, after completing the FORMOSAT-5 mission on Aug. 24, 2017.

Kenya to launch Africa's biggest wind farm

Kenya will on Friday inaugurate Africa's biggest wind power plant, a mammoth project in a gusty stretch of remote wilderness that now provides nearly a fifth of its energy needs. 

The 12th Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) mission to the International Space Station launches on Aug. 14, 2017.

A Falcon 9 rocket, carrying EchoStar 23, a commercial communications satellite for the EchoStar Corporation, launches on March 16, 2017.

A Falcon 9 rocket, just returned from delivering 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, is seen on Jan. 17, 2017.

A Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 10 Iridium NEXT communications satellites, is seen on Jan. 13, 2017, a day before its launch.

The company tests the Raptor rocket engine on Sept. 25, 2016. The rocket is intended to get a man to Mars by 2024.

Previously landed rockets are seen at the Kennedy Space Center's hangar 39A on May 14, 2016.

An upward view from Launch Pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, U.S., on May 13, 2016.

In 2015, SpaceX created history by successfully landing the Falcon 9 upright on its reentry to earth. The landing zone with the recovered first stage is seen, a day later, on Dec. 22.

The Dragon 2, powered by eight SuperDraco engines, is seen during a hover test on Nov. 23, 2015.

An inside view of Crew Dragon, SpaceX's next-generation interplanetary spacecraft, on June 11, 2015.

The Earth's horizon and a line of atmosphere are seen as the Dragon is grappled by the Canadarm2 robotic arm at the Space Station on May 25, 2012.

Australia's solar industry is booming, but so is the amount of valuable waste going to landfill

There are no laws regulating the solar industry's waste, which experts predict could grow to a whopping 1,500 kilotons by 2050.

The Crew Dragon before it splashed into the Pacific Ocean, carrying cargo back from the International Space Station, on May 21, 2015.

On Falcon 9's sixteenth launch on March 1, 2015, the vehicle carried its heaviest payload to date - the ABS 3A and EUTELSAT 115 West B satellites.