Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Video of Cosmos 1 launch

Has anyone reliably reported on seeing the Cosmos 1 solar sails in the sky?

I know it's a long shot, but I don't think we should miss any possible chances of it being in orbit.

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

The launch of the Volna on 21 June at 11:46 pm local time from the Barents Sea is shown here. The video ends about 20 seconds after launch from the submarine Borisoglebsk, and 63 seconds before the first stage burn ended prematurely, causing Cosmos 1 to be lost. The rocket manufacturer says that after the first-stage shutdown, a fail-safe mechanism would have prevented the later stages from separating and firing. They claim the entire rocket and its spacecraft payload fell into the Barents Sea, somewhere east of the launch area but west of the Novaye Zemlya archipelago.

However, a signal received at the Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka ground station seems to indicate that the fourth-stage orbit-insertion motor fired, and later signals recorded at Majuro, Marshall Islands and Panska Ves, Czech Republic ground stations also seem to be from the Cosmos 1 spacecraft. If these signals are confirmed, they would indicate that Cosmos 1 reached orbit. Mission analysts at the Space Research Institute in Moscow and at The Planetary Society are currently analyzing and testing the measured signals to determine if they are really from the spacecraft.

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