COSMOS1 the first Solar Sail

[SirUlli]

A message from Louis Friedman,
Cosmos 1 Project Director and
Executive Director, The Planetary Society

Dear Supporters,

The Planetary Society and its Members took a bold and daring step in creating and launching the world?s first-ever solar sail spacecraft.

We were all incredibly proud. Indeed, in the hours following Cosmos 1?s historic launch from a Russian ICBM rocket (part of the Russian operational ballistic missile inventory) on a submarine just a few meters under the Barents Sea on June 21, 2005, we received thousands of comments like this one from a longtime Society Member:

?Keep up the faith, you guys. No complex feat of engineering ever goes smoothly! Even if the worst occurs, be proud of the fact that you were audacious enough to try. I have never been prouder to be a Member of the Society than today.?
...

Full Story

Lets Buld it again

Sir Ulli

 

[Assimilator1]

Thanks for the heads up

I hope any 2nd attempt fares better!

 

[amdxborg]

Cool thanx for the info SirUlli!

 

[SirUlli]

Cosmos 1 was?and is?a great effort, and one we are proud The Planetary Society tried to do. Our independent grassroots organization built and launched a spacecraft whose technology promises to one day open up interstellar travel. We shared the adventure of space exploration and captured the hearts of millions worldwide. To get as far as we did was?by itself?a great accomplishment, and The Planetary Society board, staff, and technical team, together with our partners at Cosmos Studios, are dedicated to trying again.
...

We now have the final Makeev report in hand, plus additional analyses from our Russian colleagues at IKI and American colleagues of The Planetary Society. We are comfortable with the conclusion that Cosmos 1 never made it to orbit because the launch vehicle failed. But we are not comfortable with the reason it happened: the Volna selected for our payload had not been upgraded to correct a known failure mode. We will not fly on a Volna again. We?ve learned that lesson?and it was certainly a hard one. We are now ready to find a new launch vehicle, establish better launch vehicle interfaces, and try again to fly the first solar sail spacecraft.

Full Story


http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/update_20050930.html

lets build it again.................

Sir Ulli

 

[Assimilator1]

Thanks for the update Ulli

the Volna selected for our payload had not been upgraded to correct a known failure mode
Nice one Russia:disgust:

 

[dmcowen674]

Looks like launching from a submarine does not work for anything:

10-8-2005 Experimental Russian Spacecraft Missing

MOSCOW - Russian and European teams searched for an experimental mini-spacecraft on the eastern peninsula of Kamchatka on Saturday, a day after the prototype was test-launched from a nuclear submarine thousands of miles away, news reports said.

The Demonstrator spacecraft ? designed to carry cargo and passengers from the international space station to Earth ? was launched from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea on Friday and was reported to have descended toward its target on time.

Russian news agencies and television, however, later reported that engineers had no communication with the craft and had to call off the search at nightfall.

 

[SirUlli]

ant this just came in

Ice-Watching Satellite's Fate Unkown After Launch

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn_051008_cryosat_lnch.html

and

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/rockot/cryosat/

and at ESA

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/index.html

it is lost from a German Newsside

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,378869,00.html

Sir Ulli

 

[dmcowen674]

These rockets are apparently junk.

10-8-2005 Polar satellite crashes into sea

"We believe the satellite ... fell where the second rocket stage is supposed to fall, that is in the Lincoln Sea, near the North Pole," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russian Space Troops official Oleg Gromov as saying.

European Space Agency spokesman Franco Bonacina said ground stations did not see if the rocket's third stage fired to put the satellite into the correct orbit.

News agencies reported that Russia's space troops had ordered a halt into all launches using the rocket until an investigation is carried out into what went wrong.

Equipment on board Cryosat is designed to allow it to take precise measurements of the polar ice caps, which some scientists believe are thinning as a result of global warming and could lead to higher sea levels.

 

[SirUlli]

i hope this Mission has more luck

VENUS EXPRESS

LAUNCH VEHICLE: Soyuz-Fregat rocket.........

Launch Vehicle

Venus Express will be launched by a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch window is open from 26th October until 25th November 2005. Soyuz-Fregat rockets are procured through Starsem, a European-Russian company that markets Soyuz launchers outside Russia. Starsem has four shareholders - Aerospatiale, Arianespace, the Russian Space Agency and TsSKB Samara, the manufacturer of the Soyuz vehicle.

hope all goes well, and Fingers crossed.

Sir Ulli

 

[Jeff7]

Yeah, let's hope this works. Getting tired of reading "Russian launch vehicle responsible for mission failure."
Looks like Venus Express will use one of the Soyuz vehicles; I think they are supposed to be more reliable.

 

[Assimilator1]

It is one of the most reliable launchers in the world, with a 98% success rate.

Sounds promising

 

[SirUlli]

Interview with Volker Liebig on the loss of CryoSat

We can build it again

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM1OR5Y3EE_index_0.html

but

Would ESA use the same launcher operator?

Before taking a decision we will have to wait for the results of the Inquiry board and assess the time needed to build CryoSat 2. The decision on the CryoSat 2 launcher would be taken in due time.

Sir Ulli