A tiny spacecraft designed to be pushed through space by ultra-thin "solar sails" will be launched in May by space advocacy organization The Planetary Society.

The U.S.-based non-profit group announced on Monday that a date has been set for the first flight of its LightSail spacecraft. The 30-centimeter-long CubeSat is set to take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in May as a secondary payload on an Atlas V rocket.

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The LightSail spacecraft, a tiny cube satellite about the size of a loaf of bread, is expected to unfold its four solar sails in June. The triangular sails are made of Mylar and about a quarter of the thickness of a garbage bag, and have a combined area of 32 square metres or equivalent to two parking spaces.

Solar sails are designed to capture the momentum from solar energy photons using large, mirrored surfaces. The small and continuous acceleration allows a spacecraft propelled by solar sails to reach high speeds over time.

This first LightSail will spend a month or so in orbit and the first flight will be a shakedown mission to test sail deployment and other aspects of the spacecraft. It will be carried to a fairly low orbit where it will experience significant drag from the atmosphere.

The second spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2016 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, will reach a higher orbit where solar pressure can be used to maneuver.

The Planetary Society collaborates with California Polytechnic State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. They will help collect data from the spacecraft, along with two private space technology companies; Stellar Exploration Inc., which built the spacecraft, and Ecliptic Enterprises Corp., which conducted flight testing.

NASA has two upcoming solar sail missions for 2018; one to the moon and the other to an asteroid.

TagsSolar sails, LightSail spacecraft, spacecraft, Sun, Sunlight, space exploration, The Planetary Society, NASA