Suggested Searches

« Back to All Events

Launch Schedule

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

When

No Earlier Than April 23, 2024

Select Your Location or Timezone:

Mission

A small spacecraft in Earth orbit deploys solar sail

Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3)

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit as seen from directly above the spacecraft looking down at Earth below.

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System will launch as a secondary payload aboard Rocket Lab’s ‘Beginning of the Swarm’ mission. The Solar Sail System will demonstrate the use of innovative materials and structures to deploy a next-generation solar sail from a microwave-sized CubeSat. Just as a sailboat is powered by wind in a sail, solar sails employ the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, eliminating the need for conventional rocket propellant.