Launch date set for solar sailing ship

The Guardian Unlimited ^ | 06/07/05 | Tim Radford

[KevinDavis]

After years of false starts, disappointment and delay, one of spaceflight's brightest hopes could be about to take to the skies. Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sailing ship, could be launched from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in two weeks.

On June 21, if all goes well, a Soviet Volna rocket originally designed to deliver nuclear warheads will push a 100kg (220lb) American-designed spacecraft to an orbit 500 miles high. The payload will open and like the petals of a flower, eight huge triangular blades 15 metres long will unfurl to reflect the rays of the sun.

[KevinDavis]

Well I hope it goes well...

[KevinDavis]

[spinestein]

Can we see this with the naked eye?

I assume it will go into a polar orbit, and look like a normal Russian satellite, but if this solar sail is so large and reflective it should be very bright.

Is there any info available on its projected path, etc...?

[tfecw]

Sorry about the delayed bump ;)

Here is a faq/site for all of your Cosmos 1 needs

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/faqs.html

There's even a count down timer...almost exactly 13 days until launch time. I'm very excited about this.

[tfecw]

actually...i posted too soon. This seems more applicable to your question.

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/watch/index.html

[spinestein]

Thanks. That's an excellent site.