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Press Release

CONTACT:
Contact: Susan Lendroth
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps@planetary.org

Contact: Kristin Albro
Cosmos Studios
Voice: (607) 256-0007
Email: kalbro@carlsagan.com

Cosmos 1 May be Lost, But the Search Continues

Pasadena, CA, —At 12:46 PM (PDT) on June 21, 2005, Cosmos 1, a project of The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, was launched from a submerged Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.  Cosmos 1 is the first solar sail spacecraft and is designed to sail on light, using photons for propulsion in Earth orbit.

The following is a statement regarding the current known status of the mission as of Wednesday, June 22 at 10:30 AM PDT:

In the past twenty-four hours, the Russian space agency (RKA) has made a tentative conclusion that the Volna rocket carrying Cosmos 1 failed during the firing of the first stage. This would mean that Cosmos 1 is lost.

While it is likely that this conclusion is correct, there are some inconsistent indications from information received from other sources.  The Cosmos 1 team observed what appear to be signals, that looks like they are from the spacecraft when it was over the first three ground stations and some Doppler data over one of these stations.  This might indicate that Cosmos 1 made it into orbit, but probably a lower one than intended.   The project team now considers this to be a very small probability.  But because there is a slim chance that it might be so, efforts to contact and track the spacecraft continue.  We are working with US Strategic Command to provide additional information in a day or so.

If the spacecraft made it to orbit, its autonomous program might be working, and after 4 days the sails could automatically deploy.  While the chances of this are very, very small, we still encourage optical observers to see if the sail can be seen after that time.

The Planetary Society will continue to post updates on its website at http://planetary.org as information on the status of the spacecraft becomes available.

About the Planetary Society

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The Planetary Society in 1980. Learn more about The Planetary Society by exploring our innovative projects.

About Cosmos Studios

Cosmos Studios was founded in 2000 by Ann Druyan, Joe Firmage and Kent Gibson, to create science-based entertainment designed to engage the broadest possible television, film and Internet audience.  Among its achievements thus far are the DVD of the epochal 13-part television series COSMOS and the documentary films 'COSMIC AFRICA" and "COSMIC JOURNEY," which was nominated for the Emmy Award for the best long form science documentary in 2004.  Cosmos Studios is based in Ithaca, New York.

The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Avenue
Pasadena, CA   91106-2301 USA
Web: www.planetary.org
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps@planetary.org

Cosmos Studios
17 Observatory Circle
Ithaca, NY 14850-2950
Web: www.solarsail.org
Voice: (607) 256-0007
Fax: (607) 256-0066
Email: quick@carlsagan.com