Wednesday, June 22, 2005

WashingtonPost: Russian Space Agency: Solar Launch Failed

For the above linked article, free reg. req.
Author: By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV,The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 22, 2005; 12:20 PM

This vehicle was being launched to demonstrate a controlled flight of a solar sail. Solar sails are a means of spacecraft propulsion relying on pressure from sunlight. They would potentially work well for interstellar flight because they would allow the spacecraft to conserve fuel.

Apparently the booster rocket failed 83 seconds after launch. Readers may remember that this space vehicle was submarine launched (pretty cool if it works).

See the Cosmos 1 Blog for real time updates from Emily Lakdawalla, Project Operations Assistant and Image Processing Coordinator for Cosmos 1. There's no archive listing, so you have to page back to read from the pre-launch activities...

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