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News - State News

Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

Planetary Society plans new 'solar sail'

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PASADENA, Calif. -- The California-based Planetary Society will try once again to launch a solar sail spacecraft that will be propelled by the subtle pressure of sunlight.

The announcement Monday comes more than four years after the society's first solar sail spacecraft ended up in the ocean when the Russian rocket carrying it failed to reach orbit.

The Pasadena-based Planetary Society says the new project is boosted by an anonymous $1 million donation.

The project envisions a total of three solar sail spacecraft being launched over several years, the first by the end of next year.

A solar sail is not propelled by the stream of ionized gas known as the solar wind but by the pressure of light - photons pushing against a surface.