Low cost is also made possible by use of the Volna rocket, manufactured by the Makeev Rocket Bureau in Russia. The April launch will be a sub-orbital flight test of the deployment of two solar sail blades. An inflatable re-entry shield is planned to bring the pictures of the deployment back to a landing and recovery site in Kamchatka. The actual solar sail flight will commence from an 850 km circular orbit, with a launch being planned in a window between October - December of this year. The sail will be 600 square meters of aluminized mylar, constructed into 8 blades.
Solar sailing enables space travel without fuel.
Applications from space weather satellites that can hold position against the force of gravity, to interplanetary shuttles carrying cargo between the planets and the asteroids and comets are all part of the solar sailing future. By diving in close to the Sun, future solar sails will achieve enormous velocities enabling rendezvous with any solar system object, or, as mentioned above, a flight to the stars. Cosmos 1 is staffed by a world team of Americans and Russians. The Planetary Society website has a dedicated section to this mission, which includes an animation of the mission, spacecraft details, updates and news releases. It will allow the world public to follow and participate in this mission.