Two trials of spacecraft have successfully unfurled their solar sails, and demonstrated that radiation from sunlight can power them through interplanetary space. Solar sails use photons from the Sun to propel spacecraft at high speeds.

A flotilla of solar sail spacecraft could change the course of the asteroid Apophis — which is headed a little too close to Earth for comfort — by shading the space rock from solar radiation, according to a French researcher.

New research shows how solar sails could be used on satellites to levitate them above the existing Geostationary orbit, creating a whole new swath of orbital real-estate and potentially relieving existing overcrowding and international tensions.

There's gridlock in orbit. More than 400 telecommunications satellites, plus an indeterminate number of retired, failed, and secret spacecraft, occupy a narrow band of space some 35,000 kilometers above Earth's equator. Now, researchers have found a way to alleviate the congestion: attaching solar sails to satellites that would propel them 10 to 30 kilometers north or south of the standard orbit.

The non-governmental Planetary Society has announced that it has secured funding to build and fly a series of solar-sail spacecraft dubbed LightSails, first in orbit around the Earth and eventually into deeper space.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have devised a new method of Solar Sail propulsion that could make the trip from Earth to Mars in just one month.

Researchers from nine nations and from various groups across the United States met recently to discuss progress on laser propulsion or "beam solar sailing."

Researchers gave their suggestions on how we might explore other star systems to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. They discussed the impact interstellar travel would have on societal and genetic evolution.

The Planetary Society, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to privately funded eploration of space, is set to launch a 31-minute sub-orbital test flight of Cosmos 1, its solar sail propulsion system. Solar sails work much like the sails on boats, except they are pushed by sunlight instead of wind.

A private space interest organization has announced plans to develop and deploy the first space solar sail. The mission will be carried out by a unique, privately funded Russian-American space venture.