On Wednesday, Bill Nye wants to make Carl Sagan's dreams come true. The Planetary Society, founded by the late Sagan and two other stargazers, now headed by Nye, is launching a prototype of its LightSail voyager, a spacecraft powered by radiation from the sun harnessed by a thin solar sail. Weather permitting, the prototype will launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This pioneering flight won't actually demonstrate the power of solar-sailing, but it's a crucial first step in testing out the mechanics: Will the 300-square-foot Mylar sail deploy properly from its bread-loaf-sized capsule? You can watch Sagan describe the concept (to Johnny Carson in 1976) here, and watch Nye and Reuters describe this week's crowdfunded effort below. —Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Swiss bliss: Chenot Palace Weggis takes wellness to the next levelThe Blend Heath retreat on Switzerland's Lake Lucerne offers a mid-winter reset
-
Earth's mini-moon was the moon all alongUnder the radar More lunar rocks are likely floating in space
-
Crossword: February 4, 2025The Week's daily crossword
-
Earth's mini-moon was the moon all along
Under the radar More lunar rocks are likely floating in space
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energySpeed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
-
The moon has been listed as a threatened historic siteUnder the radar Human influence has extended to space
-
What is the future of the International Space Station?In the Spotlight A fiery retirement, launching the era of private space stations
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocketSpeed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
-
What is Kessler syndrome?The Explainer Scientists warn that space junk collisions could eventually trap us on Earth
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials saySpeed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
-
Earth's magnetic North Pole is shifting toward RussiaUnder the radar The pole is on the move
