"These are a vehicle with the solar sail Cosmos 1 and pneumatic breaks Demonstrator-2R," a spokesman for the Lavochkin design bureau reports.
He described the Solar Sail project sponsored by the US public organization Cosmos Studios as the first attempt not only to design an conceptually new space vehicle but also the first experience in private financing of a space project. The vehicle is planned to take off on June 21, 2005.
The participants in the project include the Federal Space Agency of Russia, the Lavochkin R&D association, the institute of space studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Makeev rocket center, the US planetary society, Cosmos Studios and the Russian Navy.
The Demonstrator-2R vehicle has been manufactured by order from the European Space Agency and the German company EADS ST. The launch is scheduled for July 5-8, 2005.
