Solar-powered space travel (and space piracy) moved one step closer to reality on Sunday, when a faulty yet resilient test satellite deployed its solar sails for the first time in Earth orbit.

The privately-funded LightSail satellite successfully unfurled its shiny Mylar solar sail on Sunday afternoon, after overcoming several technical issues that threatened to sink the project altogether. The LightSail will now use its 32-metre-square solar sail to capture light photons from the sun, which should be enough to propel it on a light-powered test flight before it crashes back into Earth’s atmosphere.

Engineers from the Planetary Society successfully activated the sails on the satellite’s second pass over the U.S. Sunday afternoon, following an unsuccessful attempt to make contact earlier in the day.

The bread loaf-sized satellite was devised by Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and funded through Kickstarter, in an attempt to demonstrate that light and solar energy can be used as propulsion for space travel.

Nye and his Planetary Society teammates shared their excitement on Twitter Sunday afternoon, as the satellite slowly responded to their commands and opened its sails to the sun.

Sail has Deployed! — Bill Nye (@BillNye) June 7, 2015

Planetary Society CEO @BillNye giving COO Jennifer Vaughn a virtual high five. We did it. #LightSail pic.twitter.com/ryN8zLL9SX — Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) June 7, 2015

Nye credited late astronomer Carl Sagan for helping devising the solar sail concept.

Motor is running! Sail is Deploying!!! 39 Years after Prof. Sagan spoke of it! — Bill Nye (@BillNye) June 7, 2015

The tiny LightSail craft rode a U.S. rocket into space last month and has been orbiting the planet ever since, dropping in and out of contact with its ground controllers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and California State Polytechnic University.

The satellite’s journey is expected to reach a fiery end sometime in the next 10 days, when it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The LightSail’s journey has been anything but smooth sailing. The satellite was initially crippled by a software flaw, but a charged space particle eventually struck the craft and jolted it into a computer restart. The LightSail later dropped into sleep mode on two separate occasions due to low battery power. Planetary Society engineers say the LightSail’s solar panels were collecting energy, but the batteries were not absorbing the charge.

That changed on Saturday, when the LightSail came back online after a three-day blackout period with seven of its eight batteries charged.

The Planetary Society waited for their satellite to come back around again on Sunday, at which point they sent new instructions to trigger the sail deployment. The LightSail motors did not respond on its first pass, but the message got through the second time around.

Motor initialization command appears to have been received. Next step is deployment command. #LightSail — Jason Davis (@jasonrdavis) June 7, 2015

To recap: LightSail deployment motor activated! Counts showed sail booms continuing to extend before spacecraft moved out of range. — Jason Davis (@jasonrdavis) June 7, 2015

National Geographic astronomy columnist Andrew Fazekas says this was a trial run for the LightSail, so issues were to be expected.

“This is really a shakedown, sort of a proof of concept, of the solar sail technology,” he told CTV News Channel on Sunday.

He adds that the next LightSail will improve upon the design using lessons learned from the maiden voyage.

Fazekas says solar sail technology would be a “very efficient and very cheap” alternative to fuel-propelled space travel that could open up new areas for exploration.

“This would be a very efficient, low-cost way to explore the solar system if we can build a large enough sail,” he said.

Nye’s Kickstarter campaign shattered its $200,000 funding goal earlier this month, accumulating more than $821,000 in pledges from more than 16,500 backers.