The agency's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3 for short, was one of two payloads that lifted off atop a Rocket Lab Electron vehicle from New Zealand today at 6:33 p.m. EDT (2233 GMT ...

Rocket Lab's Electron launched NASA's new composite solar sail into space where it will undergo weeks of testing, using sunlight to propel it through the solar system.

Named the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3, the mission's primary goal is to test the deployment of solar sails using new composite booms, which are tube-shaped materials meant to ...

A new experimental mission by NASA is now flying in orbit, aiming to use photons from the Sun to propel its way to higher altitudes. Update: April 24, 8:33 a.m. ET: Rocket Lab’s Electron blasted ...

NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) caught a ride to space on April 24 on Rocket Lab's Electron vehicle and, at the end of August, NASA shared in a release that its mission ...

NASA hitched a ride aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron Launcher in New Zealand yesterday evening, and is preparing to test a new, highly advanced solar sail design.Now in a sun-synchronous orbit ...

The Solar Sail mission will launch on April 23 on board Rocket Lab's Electron vehicle. ... Research Center test deployment of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’s solar sail. Photo: NASA.

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.

April 22 (UPI) --NASA is gearing up for a launch this week that will test a new way to navigate the solar system, using a large sail to catch the sunlight.The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System ...

April 23 (UPI) --Rocket Lab launched NASA's new composite solar sail into space where it will undergo weeks of testing, using sunlight to propel it through the solar system.The solar sail technology ...

NASA Solar Sail Sunlight-propelled space travel ACS3 Rocket Lab Electron Mahia Peninsula Photons Propulsion systems MAHIA PENINSULA, New Zealand (WKRC) - NASA launched its experimental Solar Sail ...