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Jay Barrett/KMXTOne of the packages aboard the Minotaur 4 rocket launched from Kodiak last month is missing, and may not even have released from the satellite.
NASA says the Nano Sail-D, an 8.5-pound satellite carrying a solar sail, was supposed to be ejected from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, known as FASTSAT, last Monday.
Daily Tech is reporting that NASA had anticipated that three days after being deployed from the FASTSAT, the satellite would unleash a 100 square foot polymer sail. However, the Nano-Sail-D now appears to be lost.
On Friday, NASA posted an update indicating, "it is not clear" that the sail was ever deployed, even though telemetry data showed it had.
The 10-by-10-foot diamond-shaped sail was to have caught the solar wind and stay in orbit around the Earth for up to three months.
According to the statement on its website, NASA says it will continue to troubleshoot and attempt to make contact with the Nano-Sail-D.
