---
title: "Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft wakes up, unfurls on second attempt"
description: "On Sunday, the LightSail spacecraft, failed its first attempt at unfurling its sail, but succeeded during a small, second window of opportunity that had lower odds of succeeding."
date: "2015-06-07"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Martin Ross"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/martinross"
url: "https://futurism.com/bill-nyes-lightsail-spacecraft-wakes-up-unfurls-on-second-attempt"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft wakes up, unfurls on second attempt

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- The small satellite checked in with ground controllers at 2:21 p.m. ET on Saturday for the first time since an outage began on Wednesday afternoon, according to Jason Davis of the Planetary Society.
- Davis said the organization's engineers had a "leading theory" that the spacecraft was stuck in a "loop" where power levels were too low in the Earth's shadow, but too high in direct sunlight.
- The LightSail prototype comes equipped with a large Mylar sail that is the size of a basketball court that is tucked inside the craft. Once unfurled, this sail should allow the craft to use the sun's radiation to propel through space, a cheap form of propulsion that could one day bring small satellites to deep space destinations like Mars or the moon.