Tiny Spacecraft Tested As Part of Breakthrough Starshot Plan For Interstellar Travel

It's called Wafercraft, and it's just survived its first test flight.

D-brief
By Korey Haynes
May 10, 2019 2:15 AMMar 21, 2020 12:33 AM
Wafer spacecraft - UC Santa Barabara
A new spacecraft planned for interstellar travel weighs no more than a stick of gum. (Credit: U.C. Santa Barbara)

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The first human-made spacecraft to reach another star system might fit in the palm of your hand. That’s the design engineers from the University of California, Santa Barbara are working on. The tiny craft, which weighs about as much same as a stick of gum, had its first test flight in April, where it soared more than 100,000 feet in the air. Its creators hope its successor will one day fly in space, perhaps even beyond the solar system to neighboring stars like Alpha Centauri.

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