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Launch date set for Cosmos 1 solar sail mission

After a number of delays both technical and political, the Cosmos 1 mission, the first true solar sail satellite, has finally received a definite launch date.

Ann Druyan, program director for Cosmos 1 and CEO of Cosmos Studios, a science education company based in Los Angeles and managed from Ithaca, plans to make the dream of solar sailing in space come true early next year.

"I am very, very excited about this," Druyan said. "This project has a lot of potential to waken the public to the wider universe and our means of exploring it."

Cosmos Studios, the main sponsor for the mission, is working in collaboration on this historic project with The Planetary Society (TPS), based in Pasadena, Calif. TPS is humanity's largest private space interest group, dedicated to supporting space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life. The society was co-founded in 1980 by Ann Druyan's late husband, Carl Sagan, professor of astronomy at Cornell University and famous for his popularization of science. Cosmos Studios was also founded to carry on Sagan's dream of sharing the wonder and excitement of science with the public.