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Breakthrough Starshot
Breakthrough Starshot was a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives program to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named Starchip, to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.34 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg.
A flyby mission was proposed to Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star, Proxima Centauri, in the Alpha Centauri system. At a speed between 15% and 20% of the speed of light, it would take between 20 and 30 years to complete the journey, and approximately 4 years for a return message from the starship to Earth.
The conceptual principles to enable this interstellar travel project were described in "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight", by Philip Lubin of UC Santa Barbara. Sending the lightweight spacecraft involves a multi-kilometer phased array of beam-steerable lasers with a combined coherent power output of up to 100 GW.
In September 2025, Scientific American reported that the project was on hold indefinitely. Philip Lubin estimates that the project had spent about $4.5 million of the proposed $100 million by this point.
The project was announced on 12 April 2016 in an event held in New York City by physicist and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, together with cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who was serving as board member of the initiatives. Other board members include Facebook, Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms) CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The project had an initial funding of US$100 million. Milner placed the final mission cost at $5–10 billion, and estimated the first craft could launch by around 2036. Pete Worden is the project's executive director and Harvard Professor Avi Loeb chairs the advisory board for the project.
The Breakthrough Starshot program aimed to demonstrate a proof-of-concept for ultra-fast, light-driven nano-spacecraft, and lay the foundations for a first launch to Alpha Centauri within the next generation. The spacecraft would make a flyby, and possibly photograph, of any Earth-like worlds that might exist in the system. Secondary goals were Solar System exploration and detection of Earth-crossing asteroids.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced the detection of a planet orbiting the third star in the Alpha Centauri system, Proxima Centauri in August 2016. The planet, called Proxima Centauri b, orbits within the habitable zone of its star. It could be a target for one of the Breakthrough Initiatives' projects.
In January 2017, Breakthrough Initiatives and the European Southern Observatory began collaborating to search for habitable planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. The agreement involves Breakthrough Initiatives providing funding for an upgrade to the VISIR (VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. This upgrade will increase the likelihood of planet detection in the system.
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Breakthrough Starshot
Breakthrough Starshot was a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives program to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named Starchip, to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.34 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg.
A flyby mission was proposed to Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star, Proxima Centauri, in the Alpha Centauri system. At a speed between 15% and 20% of the speed of light, it would take between 20 and 30 years to complete the journey, and approximately 4 years for a return message from the starship to Earth.
The conceptual principles to enable this interstellar travel project were described in "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight", by Philip Lubin of UC Santa Barbara. Sending the lightweight spacecraft involves a multi-kilometer phased array of beam-steerable lasers with a combined coherent power output of up to 100 GW.
In September 2025, Scientific American reported that the project was on hold indefinitely. Philip Lubin estimates that the project had spent about $4.5 million of the proposed $100 million by this point.
The project was announced on 12 April 2016 in an event held in New York City by physicist and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, together with cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who was serving as board member of the initiatives. Other board members include Facebook, Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms) CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The project had an initial funding of US$100 million. Milner placed the final mission cost at $5–10 billion, and estimated the first craft could launch by around 2036. Pete Worden is the project's executive director and Harvard Professor Avi Loeb chairs the advisory board for the project.
The Breakthrough Starshot program aimed to demonstrate a proof-of-concept for ultra-fast, light-driven nano-spacecraft, and lay the foundations for a first launch to Alpha Centauri within the next generation. The spacecraft would make a flyby, and possibly photograph, of any Earth-like worlds that might exist in the system. Secondary goals were Solar System exploration and detection of Earth-crossing asteroids.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced the detection of a planet orbiting the third star in the Alpha Centauri system, Proxima Centauri in August 2016. The planet, called Proxima Centauri b, orbits within the habitable zone of its star. It could be a target for one of the Breakthrough Initiatives' projects.
In January 2017, Breakthrough Initiatives and the European Southern Observatory began collaborating to search for habitable planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. The agreement involves Breakthrough Initiatives providing funding for an upgrade to the VISIR (VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. This upgrade will increase the likelihood of planet detection in the system.
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