[FPSPACE] Video of Cosmos 1 launch

[LARRY KLAES]

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.