http://www.planetary.org/html/news/articlearchive/headlines/2001/724cosmos1.html

By Louis Friedman

I am back in Moscow after our launch and sub-orbital test flight of the Cosmos 1 last Friday (July 20, Moscow time). The spacecraft was launched successfully from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea, but the Volna rocket failed to send the final command to separate the spacecraft from the upper stage. Without separation, the spacecraft could not initiate either its solar sail deployment sequence or the inflation sequence for the re-entry capsule. The upper stage, spacecraft and capsule complex crashed in the Kamchatka peninsula.

There is still a chance we might recover the spacecraft enclosed in the re-entry capsule. Although it would not be technically useful, it would give us a memento of a popular space organization's first flight to space - an achievement we, and our sponsors, are proud of. The flight accomplished several goals, including checking out payload integration and validating launch operations and organizational relationships for this international space mission.

I am now meeting regularly with technical teams from the Babakin Space Center, the Institute for Space Research (IKI) and the Makeev Rocket Bureau, and conducting telephone meetings with our consultants in the United States. In our discussions, we are focusing on whether to re-fly the sub-orbital test. We have insurance covering the launch, and our final decision will be influenced by the insurance settlement and the detailed evaluation of the test. I hope we can make this decision within a week or two. The Russian Space Agency will organize an official review commission to evaluate the launch rocket's separation command failure; we expect their report in August.

What is clear is that we are committed to moving forward with the orbital mission on schedule or very close to it. Furthermore, we gained enough experience in this sub-orbital test to allow us to proceed with payload development for the orbital solar sail spacecraft. We have not yet determined the precise impact of the spacecraft separation failure on the overall mission. We have scheduled meetings in Pasadena for the week of August 20, at which time we should be able to reach a conclusion and announce our new flight schedule.

Many people have asked me to assess this experience. I am proud of what we achieved with this launch; at the same time, I'm disappointed that we could not test the solar sail deployment. Nevertheless, we learned enough to proceed with our plan to fly the first solar sail in orbit around the Earth. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are firmly committed to the Cosmos 1 Project.

Dr. Louis Friedman
Cosmos 1 Project Director