NASA in Huntsville confirms first solar sail is now circling Earth (Huntsville Times) {visible ?}

[eppur_se_muova]

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.
***
more: http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/01/nasa_in_huntsville_confirms_fi.html




Emphasis added. Note the qualifier: first solar sail in low-Earth orbit, not first period.

[glinda]

1. Could this be used to slow down climate change?

[eppur_se_muova]

2. There has been some speculation on this ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoengineering#Solar_radiation_management

[bananas]

3. It's the second sail to deploy, but the first in LEO

as you point out at the end of your post.
The first solar sail to successfully deploy and operate was IKAROS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS