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First Controllable Solar Sail Launched Today

Posted by timothy on from the now-for-obedience-school dept.

clustermonkey writes "The first controllable solar sail was launched earlier today from a Russian sub in the Barents Sea. The Planetary Society, founded by Carl Sagan, organized the project and were funded by Cosmos Studios, founded by Sagan's widow. There have been 2 other solar sail deployments by others, but this will be the first to attempt controlled flight. The sail is scheduled to deploy June 25." All may not be well, though: Snot Locker writes "The Cosmos 1 Weblog is showing that, although the launch initially looked successful, they can't seem to find it or hear it. Bummer. Previous Slashdot coverage on the Cosmos 1 Solar Sail mission can be found here."

2 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Malfunction fear for solar sail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4110912.stm

  2. It may or may not have succeeded by locokamil · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Looks like the mission got off to a rocky start: Solar sail space launch failed.

    For those of you unwilling to read the article, it basically says that the Russian rocket carrying the spacecraft malfunctioned and didn't reach its planned orbit. The solar sail craft appears to be in a lower orbit, unharmed.