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Spaceflight Now wrote:Confusion over solar sail's fate continues
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: June 22, 2005

While solar sail project leaders cling to diminishing hope that their tiny spacecraft achieved orbit yesterday, Russian launch officials say the modified booster rocket malfunctioned and crashed.

"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," The Planetary Society, the solar sail's organizer, said in a statement issued at 1730 GMT (1:30 p.m. EDT) today.

"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 Volna rocket -- a converted ballistic missile -- blasted out of its launch tube aboard the Borisoglebsk at 1946 GMT (3:46 p.m. EDT) Tuesday. The Russian Navy submarine was stationed underwater in the Barents Sea offshore Russia's northern coast.

American scientists anxiously awaited news that their solar sail had been delivered into the desired 500-mile orbit around the planet. But tracking stations positioned to hear transmissions from the craft originally reported hearing nothing.

Hours later, The Planetary Society announced that its team had uncovered what were believed to be weak signals in recorded data from the sites at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula in far eastern Russia and on the island of Majuro in the Pacific's Marshall Islands. Even more encouraging was possible signals received via Panska Ves in the Czech Republic near the end of the first orbit, suggesting the spacecraft had reach some kind of sustainable altitude and not simply re-entered the atmosphere on a sub-orbital trajectory.

However, Russian media reports quoted naval sources as saying the Volna's liquid-fueled first stage engine stopped firing too soon, causing a failure to reach orbit.

The conflict in data between the rocket team saying the booster misfired and the Cosmos 1 team still thinking the sail was in space was further complicated by U.S. military's Strategic Command space tracking network's unsuccessful attempts to spot the sail in orbit.

So is Cosmos 1 truly circling the Earth today?

"The project team now considers this to be a very small probability," this afternoon's Planetary Society statement acknowledges.

However, the scientists aren't ready to give up completely despite the odds stacked against them. Efforts to contact and track the spacecraft continue because of the "slim chance" the craft is somewhere in space, just not the intended orbit.

"We are working with U.S. Strategic Command to provide additional information in a day or so," The Planetary Society statement said.

"If the spacecraft made it to orbit, its autonomous program might be working, and after four 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."

DATE=06.22.05

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-325447

TITLE=RUSSIA / SPACECRAFT

BYLINE=BILL GASPERINI

DATELINE=MOSCOW

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Rocket Fails During Launch of Solar Sail Spacecraft

INTRO: Russia's space agency says a booster rocket failed during the launch of the world's first solar-sail spacecraft. It appears the craft did not reach orbit, although scientists involved in the joint U.S.-Russian project say they may have detected faint signals from it. Bill Gasperini has more from Moscow.

TEXT: Russian space officials say the rocket suffered engine failure soon after launch late Tuesday from a submarine in the Barents Sea.

The rocket was carrying Cosmos I, a privately-funded unmanned spacecraft designed to be propelled entirely by solar power.

Scientists at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, who organized the mission, reported hearing faint signals Tuesday from Cosmos I. They said signals were picked up after a lengthy search once the craft stopped communicating soon after launch, and could indicate it is in a lower orbit than intended.

But Russian officials say the defense ministry has begun a search for possible debris, because they believe the craft failed to reach orbit.

Yelena Gontaryova is a spokeswoman for the Russian state rocket center.

/// ACT, IN RUSSIAN, EST AND FADE ///

She says according to the data received the rocket engine shut down 83 seconds into the flight and a commission is now looking into why this happened.

Cosmos I was breaking new ground as the world's first spacecraft to be propelled by photons in the sun's rays striking its solar sails.

/// OPT /// The solar-sail vehicle weighed about 110 kilograms and was designed to go into orbit more than 800-kilometers high. It was designed to be powered by eight 15-meter sail structures resembling the blades of a windmill. /// END OPT ///

Scientists say this could have major implications for future long-distance space travel, because a spacecraft would be much lighter without having to carry chemical fuel.

Private funding for Cosmos I came mostly from the Planetary Society and an entertainment company linked to it. The society was founded by the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

The space vehicle was developed in Russia by the Lavochin Association, a space and aviation design bureau, with support from the Academy of Science. The Russian military supported the mission by converting an intercontinental missile to launch the four-million-dollar craft. (SIGNED)

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