SETI public: Planetary Society Hoping To Launch Another Solar Sail By End Of 2006

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According to this article from Aviation Week & Space Technology.

http://www.habitablezone.com/space/messages/388546.html

Planetary Society Hoping To Launch Another Solar Sail By End Of '06

07/25/2005 09:35:22 AM

By Jefferson Morris

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 liftoff
from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. In 2001 a suborbital
solar sail test spacecraft built by the society also was lost in a Volna
mishap.

The society plans to seek another launch vehicle for its next try. The
spacecraft could launch on a Russian Dnepr, Soyuz-Fregat, or European Ariane
5 as a secondary payload, Friedman said. It also could fly as the sole
payload on a smaller vehicle such Russia's Cosmos-3M.

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