The voyage to Proxima b

After a successful departure from the L2 point on 1 January 2026, the Panzé-Space set course for the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. A voyage of 4.24 light-years, 1,404 Earth days and 1,017 days lived aboard a ship 47 km across. Its top speed reaches 0.89 c, under a constant thrust of 1 g.

Earth

Spacecraft

Rocket launch

31 December 2025

The last rocket has just lifted off from Earth. During the night of 1 January it will reach Panzé-Space, waiting at the L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth.

Interstellar departure

1 January 2026 at 06:00 UTC

Panzé-Space leaves the L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth, and begins its journey to Proxima B. Constant one-g thrust: aboard, the crew regains its Earth weight for 1,017 days of life on board, until orbital insertion. Give or take an hour: the wormhole crossing will be weightless.

Mars flyby

3 January 2026 at 17:49 UTC

Two and a half days after departure, Mars slides past the starboard porthole. Its rusty colour comes from the iron oxide covering its surface. Its gravity is only 0.38 g, enough to jump two and a half times higher than on Earth, and its volcano Olympus Mons rises 22 km, two and a half times Everest. Its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, have the irregular shape of large asteroids. Panzé-Space passes it at 0.007 c, or 2,112 km/s: at this speed, it could circle the planet in ten seconds.

Jupiter flyby

5 January 2026 at 20:38 UTC

Four and a half days after departure, Jupiter fills the whole porthole. It weighs 318 Earths, two and a half times more than all the other planets combined. Its Great Red Spot, a storm wider than Earth, has been observed for nearly two centuries. A day there lasts only 9 h 56: no planet in the solar system spins faster. Around it, Io is covered in active volcanoes, Europa hides an ocean under its ice, and Ganymede, the largest known moon, is bigger than Mercury. Panzé-Space passes it at 0.013 c, or 3,906 km/s.

Saturn flyby

7 January 2026 at 11:52 UTC

The planet with legendary rings. Saturn, an iconic gas giant, is distinguished by its spectacular ring system composed of ice and rock.

Uranus flyby

10 January 2026 at 02:37 UTC

An ice giant tilted 98° on its axis, Uranus literally rolls on its side. Its seasons last 21 years, and its 13 rings and 29 known moons are nearly invisible from Earth. Its distinctive blue-green color comes from methane in its atmosphere.

Neptune flyby

12 January 2026 at 08:02 UTC

The last giant of the solar system. Neptune is a world of extreme winds, the most violent in the solar system, reaching 2,100 km/h. Its deep blue colour comes from methane in its atmosphere. At this distance from the Sun, one Neptunian year lasts 165 Earth years. Panzé-Space passes it at 0.031 c, eleven days after departure. Behind us, the solar system begins to shrink. Ahead of us, the void.

Pluto flyby

13 January 2026 at 22:59 UTC

A dwarf planet since 2006, Pluto orbits the Kuiper Belt at roughly 39 times the Earth-Sun distance. Its wispy nitrogen atmosphere freezes and falls to the ground each time it drifts from the Sun. Together with its moon Charon, it forms a binary system: both bodies orbit a point that lies outside Pluto itself.

Sedna flyby

19 January 2026 at 18:50 UTC

Discovered in 2003, Sedna is one of the reddest objects in the Solar System, a hue caused by tholins coating its icy surface. About half the size of Pluto, it currently sits some 84 times the Earth-Sun distance away, somewhere between Pluto's orbit and the edge of the heliopause.

Crossing the heliopause

23 January 2026 at 09:45 UTC

This magnetic bubble, inflated by the solar wind, shields the Solar System from much of the galaxy's cosmic radiation. Its shape isn't spherical: it stretches into a long tail, shaped by the Sun's motion through the Milky Way, much like the wake behind a boat.

Planet Nine flyby

29 January 2026 at 20:43 UTC

Nobody on Earth had ever seen it: its presence was only guessed from the disorder it caused in the orbits of small icy bodies. Here it is. Planet Nine exists, and it sits right where astronomers had been looking for it, 200 times the Earth-Sun distance. About five Earth masses, a year lasting nearly ten thousand years, and a Sun so distant that noon here is no brighter than dusk back home. The first picture ever taken of it is on its way to Earth: it will arrive in a little over a day.

Entering the inner Oort cloud

23 February 2026 at 21:21 UTC

Also known as the Hills cloud, this disc of icy bodies begins around 700 times the Earth-Sun distance. The ship is already travelling at 0.150 c and now covers the Earth-to-Pluto gap in under two days.

Outer Oort cloud

21 June 2027 at 15:59 UTC

A year and a half of continuous thrust later, Panzé-Space crosses the outer shell of the Oort cloud at 0.835 c. At this speed, time no longer passes quite the same: one day aboard is already worth 1.82 days on Earth.

Wormhole entry

4 December 2027 at 09:46 UTC

End of the acceleration phase, at a peak speed of 0.893 c. The wormhole doubles as the turnaround: the ship never has to flip over in open space. It has covered 1.184 light-years in 702 Earth days, 508 days aboard.

Wormhole exit

4 December 2027 at 10:46 UTC

One hour of transit, 1.872 light-years saved. The ship comes out the same distance from Proxima Centauri as it had covered from the Sun, but pointed at its target: deceleration begins, a mirror image of the climb.

Entering the Proxima Centauri system

29 July 2029 at 00:38 UTC

Twenty months of continuous braking have brought the ship down to 0.271 c. Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf nearly twice as cool as the Sun, is now the star lighting the porthole.

Proxima c flyby

3 November 2029 at 03:19 UTC

Two and a half days before arrival. Proxima c, an icy super-Earth of about seven Earth masses, completes its orbit in five years, 1.49 AU from its star. The ship passes it at 2,091 km/s: nearly all the speed is gone.

Orbital transfer to Proxima b

5 November 2029 at 13:00 UTC

The final hour and a half of flight. Panzé-Space is now just 150,000 km from Proxima b and is manoeuvring onto its capture trajectory.

Final orbital insertion

5 November 2029 at 14:33 UTC

Arrival at relative rest around Proxima b, 1,404 days after departure. Aboard, only 1,017 have passed: relativity has handed the crew 388 days.

Mission deployment

5 November 2029 at 20:00 UTC

Five and a half hours after insertion, the modules separate and the mission truly begins.

Proxima b

Postcard from the Panzé-Space

Tip: download the image, then attach it to your post to share it with the visual.