The students of AE's Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) had a unique way of celebrating today's 50th anniversary of America's first walk in space: they gathered in the third floor of the ESM building to serve as the mission control center for another space adventure, LightSail-A.

Launched May 20, as a part of the Atlas V payload, the tiny LightSail-A satellite was scheduled to deploy its solar panels today.

By 4:00 p.m., all indications pointed to a successful deployment, says missions operations manager ("MOM") Prof. David Spencer.

"From the information we've received, the panels are showing colder temperatures, which tells us that they have deployed," said Spencer. "We're also troubleshooting any problems we might have with the batteries, so that they are ready for Friday's deployment."

On Friday, June 5,  the team will monitor another phase of the mission: the deployment of a tissue-thin, solar-powered "sail" that is designed to capture some of the propulsive energy of the solar wind. If the concept proves itself, Lightsail could offer an alternative propulsive technology to heavy fuel in future space flights. 

The Georgia Tech-based mission control center is joined by another ground station at Cal Poly - both are monitorng how the inaugural deployment of this new technology goes.

At Georgia Tech, Spencer is assisted in his work by a team of SSDL students, who are collecting information on the performance of the satellite, the solar panels, and the solar sail. The data they collect will allow engineers to test and optimize all system designs for future deployments.

LightSail-A is sponsored by The Planetary Society and NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. Next year, a more comprehensive demonstration of the LightSail technology will be conducted via Lightsail-B, which will be launched from the Georgia Tech-built Prox-1 satellite.

Find out more about the Prox-1 project.

Listen to this recorded transmission of mission control getting its first signals from LightSail-A. There's even a congratulations from Bill Nye, the Science Guy.