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 Service (SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-206.08)

LightSail-1 is planned to be launched in early 2011.

LightSail-1 is a three Cubesat spacecraft (size of shoebox and 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.

The LightSail-1 program will be featured this weekend in Washington D.C.

The USA Science & Engineering Festival National Mall in Washington, D.C. October 23 & 24, 1010 10am to 5:50pm

http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/space_information/usa_science_fes...

For further information on this Planetary Society program:

http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/innovative_technologies/solar_sai...

greg

w9gb