New York (CNN Business) About 450 miles above Earth, a small satellite is drifting deeper into the cosmos — powered not by rocket fuel, thrusters or other contraptions. This satellite, called LightSail 2, is sailing on a sunbeam.

famed science communicator Bill Nye. Its mission was declared a success on Wednesday, marking the culmination of a years-long effort to prove a satellite can surf through space using sunlight as an endless fuel supply. The prototype spacecraft is the work of the Planetary Society , an international nonprofit headed byfamed science communicator Bill Nye. Its mission was declared a success on Wednesday, marking the culmination of a years-long effort to prove a satellite can surf through space using sunlight as an endless fuel supply.

It has nothing to do with solar panels: Plenty of satellites already use that technology to convert the sun's energy to electricity. Solar sailing is a different, centuries-old concept. It suggests spacecraft can be propelled by a slow, constant push from photons, which are light particles that have no mass but still carry momentum.

"It's counter-intuitive, it's surprising, and to me it's very romantic," Nye told reporters during a a press call Wednesday, "to be sailing on sunbeams."

The Planetary Society spent a decade working up to the LightSail 2 mission and scraping together the $7 million needed to get the project off the ground. All told, 50,000 supporters from 109 countries donated to the initiative, according to Planetary Society COO Jennifer Vaughn.

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