By Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times
HUNTSVILLE, AL - The good news keeps coming for NanoSail-D. NASA has confirmed that a team based in Huntsville has successfully deployed the first solar sail in low-Earth orbit.
The sail deployed Thursday night, hours after NASA was able to confirm that the nanosatellite carrying it had itself deployed from the larger satellite that carried NanoSail-D into space.
The 100-square-foot polymer sail
should be visible from Earth during passes over the planet before it re-enters the atmosphere, principal investigator Dean Alhorn said Friday. Re-entry should happen sometime between 70 and 120 days.
NASA is working on easy guides to help amateur astronomers find the sail, but some information is already available at www.heavens-above.com.
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more:
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/01/nasa_in_huntsville_confirms_fi.htmlEmphasis added. Note the qualifier: first solar sail
in low-Earth orbit, not first period.