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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

What's new with Cosmos 2?

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Lou Friedman has just posted an update on the next solar sail mission. We launched Cosmos 1 to test the principle of steering a spacecraft using light pressure back in 2005 but our launch vehicle failed. We're planning on building a similar spacecraft and trying again using a more reliable launch vehicle; Lou says in his update that we're currently looking at a piggyback on a Soyuz-Fregat. The main thing we need right now is funding, and that's still a work in progress. Read Lou's update for more details. (And, if you'd like to help us out, why not send a few bucks our way for the Solar Sail project?)

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