Blog – Page 11,659

Breakthrough Starshot, the Stephen Hawking-backed attempt to reach Alpha Centauri, has successfully flown its first ever spacecraft – the smallest ever launched.

Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner announced the $100-million-dollar research program in April 2016, aiming to show that light-propelled spacecraft could fly at 20% of light speed and reach the next nearest galaxy just 20 years after their launch.

Last month, a number of their prototype “Sprites” tiny fully functional space probes built on a single circuit board, achieved Low Earth Orbit.