Solar Sail Goes Missing

The Planetary Society's solar sail prototype Cosmos 1 was launched from a Russian submarine yesterday, but it seems have gone missing. There are conflicting reports coming from Russian news sources that say that the Volna rocket booster failed 83 seconds after launch because of problems with the first stage of its three-stage rocket. This is different from a US team also working to track the solar sail who said they've detected it a few times in orbit (link to BBC article).

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today, founding the website in March 1999. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast.