Fact Sheet
Sailing to the Stars
NASA engineers are designing "space sails" to propel future spacecraft to the stars. These craft would use sunlight or powerful lasers beamed from Earth the way a sailboat uses the wind. A demonstration craft (shown in this artist's conception), with a sail twice the size of a football field, could be launched in a decade. It would travel about 23 billion miles from Earth. See our August 2 radio program for more details.
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