The mission is designed to test solar sail technology to help NASA develop larger spacecraft in the future using this ...

Solar sailing is an innovative concept in spacecraft propulsion that utilizes the pressure of sunlight to propel spacecraft through space. This method offers a unique advantage as it does not ...

Instead, it would literally fall into the sun. To stay in such an orbit, a spacecraft would need another constant outward force. A solar sail could provide that continuous push, and the ...

It works similarly to how wind pushes against a sail on a boat. So too can sunlight push against a spacecraft to propel it through space. Incidentally, we call these spacecraft solar sails.

Traveling from one star to another is currently impossible to achieve within a human lifetime. But some projects are ...

The data-gathering spacecraft zipped by the sun on Tuesday at 430,000 mph (692,017 kph) — the fastest speed ever reached by a human-made object — coming within 3.8 million miles of the solar ...

A NASA spacecraft made history and is safe after making the closest-ever approach to the sun. On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the sizzling solar atmosphere and passed within a ...

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has successfully tested the nuclear fuel that may one day propel and power the spacecraft of the future. The trials verify that the fuel can survive ...