First solar sail spacecraft launch | Techday, June 21st
On this TECHDAY, on June 21st 2005, deep space travel came one step closer to reality. History’s first “solar sail” spacecraft launched with the help of a Volna rocket fired from a Russian submarine submerged in the Barents Sea. It had an eight-petalled solar sail, 650 square metres of a thin aluminium alloy coated film. Space Research Institute and Lavochkin Association built the project in Russia. The estimated budget was four million dollars sponsored by the non-profit U.S. Planetary Society.
The lightsail was a science experiment that aspired to test the propulsion potential through light radiation with little human input.
Cosmos 1 was launched into space on a converted ICBM missile, and the plan was to have the sail at an altitude of about 620 miles (1,000 km) above the Earth’s surface. However, the spacecraft failed to reach orbit due to a problem with the booster rocket’s third stage, and the mission was a failure.
Despite the failure of Cosmos 1, the Planetary Society and other space agencies continue to study and develop solar sail technology as a potential means of propulsion for future space missions. In 2010, Japan’s IKAROS solar sail spacecraft successfully deployed its sail and completed a flyby of Venus, becoming the first successful mission. In 2021, NASA’s Solar Cruiser completed a flyby of Sun, thus becoming the first successful solar sail to test out the technology for such close proximity to star.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
