"NASA Successfully Deploys Basketball-Court-Sized Solar Sail for Deep Space Propulsion"

NASA successfully deployed one quadrant of a huge solar sail at Redwire Space's facility in Colorado, marking a significant milestone in experimental spacecraft propulsion using solar radiation. Solar sails harness and reflect sunlight to generate propulsion, making them suitable for low-mass missions in novel orbits without the need for fuel. The technology, now at TRL 6, could soon propel low-cost, long-duration space missions and even accelerate missions beyond the solar system, with potential future use of lasers to accelerate the sails to high speeds.