Starcloud Founders Want to Send a Spacecraft on an 80,000-Year Journey to Alpha Centauri

    The founders of Starcloud, a startup planning to create a GPU fleet in orbit, want to send a small spacecraft on an 80,000-year journey to Alpha Centauri. Fermi Explorer, the nonprofit organization that will manage the mission, has begun seeking partners, financial support, and technical advice. If the plan succeeds, the spacecraft will become the first human-made object intentionally directed toward another star. It will also be the sixth spacecraft to leave the Solar System.    The organization’s initial team includes Starcloud founders Philip Johnston, Adi Oltean, and Ezra Feilden, as well as program director Garret Jameson. They want to use proven space technologies to send a 1 kg spacecraft into interstellar space. The spacecraft will carry a square payload with sides measuring 10 cm. The mission aims to continue humanity’s drive to explore, achieve a historic first, and test the Fermi paradox, which asks why other intelligent life has not been found.    The launch is planned for 2029, and the mission is expected to cost approximately $15 million (approximately 25.5 million manats). The organization is seeking contractors to build the spacecraft, donors to finance the work, and scientific and artistic payloads. This approach is reminiscent of the sensors and the information record called the Golden Record that the NASA space agency placed aboard the Voyager probes. Voyager, launched in 1977, is currently approximately 26 billion kilometers from Earth.    Although Alpha Centauri is the closest star to the Solar System, it is 41 trillion kilometers from Earth. Breakthrough Starshot was founded by Yuri Milner in 2016, and Mark Zuckerberg supported the project. The multibillion-dollar initiative aimed to cover this distance in 20 to 30 years using a laser-based propulsion system. However, the project ceased operations in 2025, and the planned mission did not materialize.    Instead of developing expensive technology, the new mission will use existing capabilities. The spacecraft will be launched into orbit on a rocket alongside other payloads and will then perform a series of maneuvers using a low-power electric engine. It will remain active for approximately 12 years and then enter a free-flight phase toward Alpha Centauri. The team believes the metal body can remain in the radiation environment for 50,000 years, but it does not plan to activate the spacecraft after 80,000 years. Fermi Explorer hopes that a future human civilization will intercept the spacecraft along the way.