Free Republic

While still trying to sort out precisely what happened to its Cosmos-1 solar sail spacecraft, the Planetary Society hopes to be able to build and launch another solar sail by the end of next year, according to Director Louis Friedman. "We're going to make plans to try and do Cosmos-1 again and to have another attempt at flying the first solar sail mission," Friedman told The DAILY. "We have a lot of ground spares and we could probably build a spacecraft fairly quickly ... maybe in a year." Cosmos-1 was lost June 21 when its Volna rocket failed shortly after...

Russia has dispatched a solar-sail spacecraft and a space parachute to waters off its northern coast to be launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea. The unmanned spacecraft with eight triangular sail blades, each 16.5 yards long, and a new inflatable deceleration device, have been dispatched to the main administrative base of Russia's Northern Fleet, Severomorsk, the Lavochkin production and science association said. The spacecraft, called Cosmos 1, is to be launched on June 21. The launch had been planned for March but was postponed, because the preparatory work had not been completed in time. Scientists will study the...