An experimental NASA solar sail can be seen in the night sky as it orbits the Earth. NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) launched in April 2024 atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The ...

For a number of years now NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has been the driving force behind some of space exploration’s craziest, most spectacular, and daring ideas born in the ...

HAMPTON, Va. — Inside a large building at NASA's Langley Research Center Tuesday afternoon, a model of NASA’s latest solar sail was stretched out on the floor on display. You might say it looks like a ...

We need to make bigger solar sails from materials that can take high temperatures. Taking high temperatures means the solar sails could fly closer to the sun. If we got four times closer to the sun ...

The burgeoning space industry and the technologies society increasingly relies on – electric grids, aviation and telecommunications – are all vulnerable to the same threat: space weather. Space ...

It was back in May we last heard about NASA launching its Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, which if successful could revolutionize space travel in the solar system and perhaps even further out ...

A variety of sailcraft missions are in the works. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Solar sailing can be a relatively slow-motion ...

NASA is gearing up to launch an advanced solar sail spacecraft later this month. Using a new boom made of lightweight polymer composites, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is scheduled to lift ...

There’s a pervasive idea in science fiction that the stars themselves could power our adventures among the stars. In Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Count Dooku flies away on a Solar Sailer, while ...

NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) can be seen with the naked eye as it orbits Earth, and can be tracked with a helpful app. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...