Jun 21 2005
From The Space Library
The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios launched Cosmos 1, the first solar-powered spacecraft, at 3:46 p.m. (EDT), on a Volna rocket from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. Russian Space Agency officials, however, were not certain that the spacecraft had attained orbit. The spacecraft's sponsors, the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, are U.S. nonprofit organizations that seek to increase the public's knowledge of and involvement in space exploration. The late American scientist Carl Sagan had helped found the Planetary Society, and Ann Druyan~Sagan's widow~had founded Cosmos Studios. The two organizations had designed the craft and launched the mission to demonstrate the feasibility of solar power technology as an effective means of space travel. The pressure of solar light particles~photons~on the spacecraft's large, triangular, mirror-like “solar sails” were to propel the engineless, fuel-free Cosmos 1. (John Antczak for Associated Press, “Solar Sail Spacecraft Launched from Russian Submarine,” 21 June 2005; The Planetary Society, “Projects: Solar Sailing,” http://planetary.org/programs/projects/solar_sailing/ (accessed 10 August 2009).)
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