One Year in Space: NASA’s ACS3 Solar Sail Just Proved It Can Fly Without Fuel

One year ago today, NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) deployed its shimmering 80-square-meter (860 sq ft) solar sail from a tiny 12U CubeSat — and made spaceflight history. Now, the mission celebrates its first orbital anniversary as a quiet pioneer of propellant-free propulsion and next-generation space structures.

NASA’s ACS3 Solar Sail Celebrates One Year in Orbit

Built in collaboration with Lithuanian smallsat specialist Kongsberg NanoAvionics, the ACS3 mission marked the first in-orbit use of NASA’s novel lightweight composite booms, designed to deploy large structures from compact spacecraft. These high-performance materials not only allowed the solar sail to unfurl successfully but also opened the door to future missions that might sail across the solar system without fuel.

The potential doesn’t stop at propulsion. NASA envisions using the same compact composite technologies to support infrastructure on the Moon or Mars – like deployable communication towers, antennas for rovers, or even modular surface shelters.

This concept uses the pressure from photons – light particles from the Sun – pushing against large, reflective sails, similar to how wind moves a sailboat. The ACS3 spacecraft, about the size of a microwave, could help make deep space missions much cheaper and simpler by removing the need for heavy fuel supplies.

With the success of ACS3, NASA has taken a major step toward scalable, sustainable space exploration. The sunlight-powered spacecraft may be small, but its legacy could shape the next era of missions to deep space and beyond.