Titan Aerospace's Solar-Powered "Satellite"

           Titan Aerospace is currently developing a high-altitude solar-powered (unmanned) plane, in which it is the world's first atmospheric "satellite" with limited applications. As Spectrum has written: "The Solara is intended to loft a payload to 20,000 meters (60,000 feet) and then keep it there for five years, running entirely on solar power. It functions a bit like a satellite except substantially cheaper and much more versatile. And, you can get it back when you're done."

            The Titan Solara 50 solar plane has a wingspan of approximately 150 feet. It has the ability to carry a payload of around 250 pounds to "atmospheric orbit" and then stay operational up there, thanks to the 3,000 solar panel cells that can produce 7 kilowatts of electricity).

Solar Flare of May 12 and May 13, 2013

      According to space weather experts, a hyperactive spot on surface of the sun has fired off two of the most powerful solar flares of the year in simply 24 hours, and is showing promising signs that it will unleash more solar storms over the course of the next several days. The active sunspot has actually went on overdrive on Mother's Day when it had erupted late Sunday night (May 12) with an X-class solar flare, which is the strongest type of solar storm possible, said NASA scientists in an update.

The sun had erupted with an X1.7-class solar flare on May 12, 2013. The flare had appeared as a bright point on the left of the sun in this full-disk view of NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory. It is a blend of two images of the sun recorded at different wavelengths of light

      This giant solar flare, which is categorized and registered as one of the largest eruptions the sun can unleash, had peaked Sunday night at 10:17pm EDT (02:17 GMT) and was captured on camera by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. It had sparked an hour-long high-frequency radio blackout, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Shortly after, on May 13, another eruption had followed midday on Monday by an even more powerful X2.8 solar flare, which is the third-strongest solar storm in reent years. A video of the huge solar flares seen together can be shown here.
       The Mother's Day solar flare had sent a super-hot wave of solar plasma, known as a coronal mass ejection, hurtling through space at about 2.6 million mph (4.3 million km/h). The second flare on Monday is known to send solar plasma streaking through space at a rate of 4.3 million mph (6.9 million km/h). However, the solar eruptions were not aimed at Earth so should not be posed as a threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, claimed by NASA officials.

On May 13, 2013, an X2.8-class flare had erupted from the sun, the strongest flare of 2013 to date. This NASA image shows a close-up of the flare as seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in the 131 angstrom wavelength