Students deploy tiny solar sails in space that could one day travel to other stars

Cornell students have completed two experimental missions to test tiny light sails deployed in space. The results could help refine ultra-light spacecraft for future propulsion and navigation missions.

In Short

• Alpha CubeSat deployed its sail and contacted a ChipSat in orbit
• Sailing to the Stars released six sails aboard the ISS
• Students tested 3D-printed deployers, reaction wheels and TV remote controls

Students at Cornell University have successfully completed two experimental missions testing an unconventional spacecraft concept that could eventually enable tiny probes to travel across the Solar System, and potentially, one day, to other stars.

The two missions, Alpha CubeSat and Sailing to the Stars, tested lightweight sails that use the momentum of photons from sunlight to accelerate. Unlike conventional solar sails, the systems are designed to be extremely small and can deploy from CubeSats in orbit.

The sails are slightly larger than a pizza box and carry ChipSats, gram-scale spacecraft small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. The ChipSats provide communications and spacecraft-control capabilities while adding very little mass.

Both experiments were launched to the International Space Station in late 2025, with Alpha travelling aboard NG-23 and Sailing to the Stars launching with Crew-11.

Alpha was a 1U CubeSat funded through NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. Once in low Earth orbit, it deployed its light sail and successfully established communication with its tiny ChipSat through the global TinyGS amateur radio network.

Mission data confirmed that the sail deployment worked before the spacecraft eventually re-entered Earth's atmosphere in May 2026. The mission also demonstrated several other technologies, including a magnetorquer-based spin-stabilisation system, commercial off-the-shelf avionics and a fully 3D-printed spacecraft chassis.

Sailing to the Stars conducted a different experiment aboard the ISS, deploying six light sails in the station's microgravity environment. Cameras and inertial measurement data captured how the sails moved during deployment.

Students tested two different 3D-printed deployer designs using modular components. The systems were spin-stabilised using reaction wheels adapted from laptop hard drives and controlled using TV remotes.

According to the team, both missions completed their major objectives, providing data that could help improve future light-sail spacecraft.

The technology could eventually be used for missions requiring very small and lightweight spacecraft, including orbit raising, steering and propulsion demonstrations.

The longer-term goal is far more ambitious: using powerful lasers to push light sails to extremely high speeds. Concepts such as Breakthrough Starshot envision tiny spacecraft riding laser beams toward nearby star systems.

For Cornell's students, the experiments also represent a hands-on pathway into spacecraft engineering. More than 150 students have contributed to the projects since 2016, demonstrating how university-led missions can test technologies that could shape the future of space exploration.

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