“For the first time in human history, we can do more than just gaze at the stars,” declared philanthropist and high-tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner on April 12. “We can actually reach them.”
Milner, a Russian native, was named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who exactly 55 years earlier became the first man in space and the first to orbit Earth. Milner was hoping to bring another historic first to fruition. At a press conference held atop New York City’s One World Trade Center, he unveiled Breakthrough Starshot, a program with a bold agenda: to launch, within 20 years, a fleet of spacecraft that would within another 20 years reach the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 4.37 light-years away.
Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner wants to launch tiny probes to the nearest star system. | Breakthrough Initiatives
Milner wasn’t just talking a good game; he was backing it with his own money, $100 ...
