Chemical propulsion for first stage of a light sail deployment?
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A Russian billionaire wants to send postage stamp-sized probes off to Alpha Centauri using meter-square light sails. Regardless of the practicality of such an attempt, is there a lot to be gained by using a small chemical rocket to boost a deployment mechanism out of LEO up to some speed before deploying the sails, or is the gain so small that it's not worth the effort? Would we gain years, or only days compared to just launching them from an orbital platform* by unfurling the sails and shooting a laser at them?
*By "orbital platform" I mean one in Earth orbit.
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