Cornell University reports that two student-built experiments flew thin light sails in space. A light sail is a large, thin sheet pushed by sunlight. These sails were a bit larger than a pizza box. They folded like origami into CubeSats, small box satellites, then opened and separated to fly on their own. Gram-scale computers called ChipSats rode on the sails to handle radio contact and steering.
The missions launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) in late 2025. Alpha, a one-unit CubeSat funded by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, released its sail in low Earth orbit. Amateur radio operators in the TinyGS network received complete data packets from the ChipSat before atmospheric drag pulled the sail down. This was the first time a spacecraft that small had sent complete packets from orbit to the ground. The CubeSat kept working until it left orbit in May 2026, confirmed the sail had opened, and ran extra tests.
Sails tested on the station
A companion ISS experiment called Sailing to the Stars opened six light sails inside the station with funding from the ISS National Laboratory and Rhodium Scientific. Cameras and a sensor of motion and rotation recorded the unfolding. Two 3D-printed deployers were compared, both using modular parts, old laptop disk motors as reaction wheels to control spin, and television remotes for commands, to see which release was steadier.
More than 150 students have worked on these spacecraft since 2016, and the Alpha idea first came from a high school student in a design contest. Both experiments met their main goals. Cornell says later flights could try steering, raising orbit, and laser pushing, with the long-term aim, shared with projects such as Breakthrough Starshot, of riding laser beams toward nearby stars.