Russian solar sail space launch ends in failure

A FUTURISTIC Russian-US project to launch a solar sail space vehicle crashed when the Russian booster rockets failed less than two minutes after lift-off, showering debris over the Arctic Ocean, the Russian space agency said yesterday.

The Cosmos 1 vehicle was intended to show that a so-called solar sail can make a controlled flight, providing a model for inter-stellar flights of the future. Solar sails are envisioned as a potential means for achieving inter-stellar flight in the future, allowing such spacecraft gradually to build up great velocity and cover large distances.

However, the Volna booster rocket failed 83 seconds after its launch from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Arctic Barents Sea last night, the Russian space agency said. Its spokesman, Vyacheslav Davidenko, said "the booster's failure means that the solar sail vehicle was lost."