Solar sailing spacecraft LightSail is communicating once again with mission controllers after it went silent more than a week ago. The craft stopped responding after a software glitch caused its system to crash. However, it sent two data packs back to Earth over the weekend, suggesting that it has rebooted successfully.

LightSail was originally expected to automatically deploy the solar sails in late June. The Planetary Society’s CEO Bill Nye said, “Our LightSail called home! It's alive! Our LightSail spacecraft has rebooted itself, just as our engineers predicted. Everyone is delighted. We were ready for three more weeks of anxiety.

The Planetary Society, the non-profit group behind the project said that the spacecraft began testing its solar sails as early as Wednesday. LightSail's handlers are now looking into when to deploy the craft's giant solar sails.

The test is being conducted in anticipation of a larger 2016 launch. Engineers at the Planetary Society are anxious to see if a mass-market toaster oven-sized box of a satellite known as the CubeSat is capable of deploying its sails successfully and render power from high speed solar particles.

Scientists are hopeful that solar sail technology will have significant implications for the future of deep space travel. Carrying large amounts of fuel into space is expensive and complicated. Harnessing the kinetic power of solar particles would both simplify space travel and make it a whole lot cheaper.