For decades, scientists have dismissed the idea of reactionless propulsion—the concept of generating thrust without expelling propellant—as a fantasy that defies the laws of physics. But Charles Buhler, a former NASA electrostatics expert, believes his team has built a gravity-defying propulsion system that does exactly that.
Buhler, who helped found the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, is now co-leading a private space startup called Exodus Propulsion Technologies. According to Buhler, their device uses nothing more than electric fields to generate sustainable thrust. This is enough, he claims, to overcome the pull of gravity without any exhaust or fuel.
He describes the force the gravity-defying propulsion system creates as a “New Force” not currently accounted for in known physics. In short, he believes this system can move an object by manipulating electrostatic pressure, which is the shifting of an object’s center of mass in a way that produces a measurable, sustained force.
“The discovery is fundamental,” Buhler told The Debrief, “and allows center-of-mass translation without expelling mass.”
But the space community has been down this road before. The EmDrive, once touted as a similar breakthrough, fell apart under scientific scrutiny. What began as promising early results from NASA’s Eagleworks lab was ultimately proven to be a measurement error. A decade of excitement ended in a quiet debunking.
That’s why Buhler’s claims are being met with a mixture of fascination and healthy skepticism. He presented the findings at the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference, a gathering known for entertaining fringe theories. However, his credentials and the involvement of researchers from NASA, Blue Origin, and the Air Force have raised some eyebrows, including my own.
This new system allegedly achieved sustained lift in 2023. If verified, this milestone would be absolutely unprecedented. However, until independent labs can replicate the result, the idea of a real gravity-defying propulsion system remains unproven. And no peer-reviewed publication has confirmed the data just yet.
Science always thrives when big ideas are put forward. But, if you’re going to make extraordinary claims, you have to have the evidence to back them up. Without it, your claims are just that, and they’ll soon be lost to the world of scientific skepticism until you can prove them.
