On 2 July 2019 the Planet Society, based in the United States, launched the LightSail 2 satellite, designed using solar sail technology. The lightweight satellite, was launched with the SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was low budget mission funded by donations from 50,000 members. The total budget was less than 7 million USD. In late July 2019, LightSail 2 opened its solar sail. It took about 3 minutes to do so. 