NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia is set to host an event on Tuesday, April 16 from 10-11 a.m. that will provide media with an opportunity to learn about the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3), a next-generation solar sail technology designed to help expand our understanding of the Sun and solar system.
The ACS3 harnesses the pressure of sunlight to navigate through space, similar to how a sailboat uses wind to travel across the ocean. The system features a full-scale engineering design unit of the polymer sail and lightweight composite booms that will be showcased at the event.
NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system, while NASA’s Ames Research Center in California manages the project and developed the on-board camera diagnostic system. The mission is funded and managed by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), with support from NASA’s Game Changing Development program for the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc. of Long Beach, California will provide the launch services.
The ACS3 is set to launch aboard a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from New Zealand’s Launch Complex 1 during a 30-day window that opens no earlier than April 24. After two months of on-orbit systems checks, it will deploy into space aboard a CubeSat of “12U” size.
Media personnel interested in attending this exciting event must contact Joe Atkinson at joseph.s.atkinson@nasa.gov by noon on April 15 to confirm their attendance. For more information about ACS3 or to get in touch with Joe Atkinson at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, call 757-755-5375 or email joseph
