The Fermi Explorer will be the first spacecraft to launch to another star. It will launch in 2029, on a journey that will take around 77,000 years, for USD 15M
United States
Joined July 2025
- Tweets345
- Following28
- Followers2.3K
- Likes566
Pinned Tweet
Did you know that humanity has never launched a spacecraft to another star? That is about to change! We have created a non-profit to attempt to send humanity’s 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿… and we need your help!
We have formed non-profit The @FermiExplorer Mission with the goal of launching a minimum viable spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, leaving in 3 years and arriving in around 80,000 years. We hope it will be both the first spacecraft to leave Earth for another star, and the last to arrive, as per this concept video!
The mission is intended to make the idea of interstellar travel real, and to encourage more people to confront one of humanity’s biggest unanswered questions when we look beyond our planet: "Where is everybody?" (the Fermi Paradox)
The mission has four high-level objectives:
- Aim: To launch the first spacecraft to another star. It should get at least 99% of the way to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, within 80,000 years.
- Payload: It should have at least a 1kg, 10x10x10 cm payload.
- Schedule: It should launch before the end of 2029
- Cost: It should cost less than $15M to design, build, launch, and operate.
The mission was planned with the help of the folks at @astrodigitalgeo, @MattGialich and the folks at @AstroForge, and @alexwg+@matthew_pines physical AI lab PSI, who devised the final mission profile. The mission will be executed by full-time program manager @GarrettJameson, who joins us after 10 years as a US Air Force Officer, in collaboration with a US bus manufacturing partner that will be selected over the coming months.
We will need your help to complete the mission, so if the idea of the mission excites you, please check out the Fermi Explorer website in the comments to find out more about why we are doing the mission and how to get involved!
Thanks to London Studio @ZeroOneCreative and @ashkan01C for producing the concept video 🙏🙏
Us too! One of the main reasons to do the @FermiExplorer mission to Alpha Centauri!
👌🚀
Great to chat about our plan to send the first spacecraft to another star with @anu_bonth 🙌
@FermiExplorer 🚀
youtu.be/1OYbInkuIZk
8
536
👌🚀
78,000 years! That is how long it will take for a mission designed by the team at @FermiExplorer. But this isn't any ordinary mission. It is going out towards our first star, Alpha Centauri.
So when Philip Johnston, founder of Fermi Explorer, announced this once in a lifetime mission, I HAD TO bring him on the show.
The Fermi Explorer Mission has a goal of launching a minimum viable spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, leaving in 3 years and arriving in around 80,000 years.
Chapters 📌:
A 78,000-year journey
Fermi Explorer’s mission to Alpha Centauri
The Fermi paradox and humanity’s future
The Voyager inspiration
Spacecraft design, power, and propulsion
The Oberth effect, explained
First Resonance (sponsor)
Solar escape and Jupiter gravity assists
The $10–15 million mission estimate
Communicating from deep space
Science, art, and messages from children
The team and potential collaborators
A community effort: how to get involved
We are proud to partner with First Resonance, the sponsor of today's video. Learn more about First Resonance here: hubs.ly/Q04Cd2s50
Learn more about how you can get involved in the Fermi Explorer mission here: fermiexplorer.org/
🔥👌
@RuiHuang_art baut mit @bot ein interaktives Werk, Encyclopedia Cosmologica, das 2029 mit @FermiExplorer Richtung Alpha Centauri starten soll. Drin liegen über 5000 Science-Fiction-Arbeiten zu fortgeschrittenen Zivilisationen, angeregt von Jon Lomberg und Carl Sagan, mit Dank an @PhilipJohnston.
🔥
I believe we need to redefine the Kardashev Scale, not by the amount of energy civilizations consume, but by the goals they can reach and the distances they cover in the cosmic ocean. Reaching the limits of our own star was the threshold of 'Civilization 1.0' for humanity. Now we must focus on new horizons, setting the achievement of reaching neighboring star systems as the new measure of our advancement. The foundations that will carry us into this new era are being built step by step, and that great leap towards 'Civilization 2.0' officially begins in 2029. Ladies and gentlemen, this is @FermiExplorer
🔥🫡
Dare mighty things.
This is a noble quest for the ages.
Beautiful to see this being done.
Go follow @FermiExplorer.🛰🌌
👌
The scientific calculations, ambition, analysis and discussion around @FermiExplorer are next level ✨ Visualisations are stellar! Honestly everyone interested in space exploration and the universe should check this out. It’s like real science meets Star Trek. ✨💫
Yes 🤓👌 we’re working on it at @FermiExplorer 🚀
🔥
Fun to discuss @Starcloud_, data centers in space, and interstellar travel with @johnkwerner and Daniela Rus at the @MIT Future Fest! 🤓🚀
@FermiExplorer
😱🤓🚀
Thanks NASA Administrator Isaacman @rookisaacman for being one of the biggest supporters of orbital data centers… and interstellar missions! 😲😃🚀
@Starcloud_, @FermiExplorer
🤓👌
My explanation for why the Fermi Paradox might imply doomerism… but if it doesn’t, we definitely should do the @FermiExplorer mission to Alpha Centauri which is my optimistic response to this argument! 🚀
👌
K3 or bust.
Elon has been increasingly talking about humanity climbing the Kardashev scale, where civilizations are measured by how much energy they can harness. K1 is planetary scale, K2 is the energy of an entire star, and K3 is an entire galaxy. Musk has specifically framed SpaceX, orbital solar energy, AI and massive-scale space infrastructure as the beginning of that climb.
So K3 is basically the absolute endgame of the Elon worldview: not Mars, not AGI, not even a Dyson swarm, but humanity becoming a galaxy-scale civilization.
K3 or bust.
