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There were 13 science payloads as part of NASA's inaugural flight Space Launch System. It includes a megarocket instead of the current space shuttle in 2018, according to National Geographic.

One of these payloads is even set to make history. It is a $16 million spacecraft called Near-Earth Asteroid Scout or NEA Scout. What makes it a unique breakthrough is being the first ever solar-powered spacecraft to swish into space.

"A sail wins the race in terms of final velocity because it's the tortoise and the hare. A chemical rocket provides enormous thrust at first, but eventually burns up its fuel. Since the sail doesn't use any fuel, we can keep thrusting as long as the sun is shining," said Les Johnson, technical advisor for NASA's Advanced Concepts Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

A long list of its possible missions and destinations have been drawn out. Even as it sets out, it will capture "a series of low (50 cm/pixels) and high resolution (10 cm/pixels) images to determine global shape, spin rate, pole position, regional morphology, regolith properties, spectral class and local environment characterization", according to NASA.

NASA's striking venture is an attempt to reduce the expenses involved in zooming into space and the solar system. Hence, NEA Scout is a "6U CubeSat developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory".