SAN FRANCISCO — As a college student in Prague, Tomas Svitek was fascinated by solar sails. It was the 1970s. NASA, the European Space Agency and Japan were all exploring whether solar sails could assist spacecraft missions to rendezvous with Halley’s Comet. Although solar sail technology was deemed too immature at the time, Svitek’s interest in the concept never waned.

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Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is a recipient...