On Wed, 22 Jun 2005, OM wrote:

...A more official update from the Planetary Society:

At 12:46 PM (PDT) on June 21, 2005, Cosmos 1, a project of The
Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, was launched from a submerged
Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. Cosmos 1 is the first
solar sail spacecraft and is designed to sail on light, using photons
for propulsion in Earth orbit.

Launching satellites from a submerged submarine?
Isn't that about the hardest place to ever to reach orbit from.

In a polar orbit? Anything else that makes orbit insertion more difficult
than usual?

What are they doing? Why there? Don't they have easier places to launch
from or are they showing off their their techological, (and possible
military) command of space?

The following is a statement regarding the status of the mission at
9:40 PM PDT: We continue to search for the Cosmos 1 spacecraft. We
have reviewed our telemetry recordings and have found what we believe
are spacecraft signals in the data recorded at the tracking stations
in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka and Majuro, Marshall Islands. The review
of data received at the tracking station in Panska Ves, Czech Republic
also appears to indicate a spacecraft signal. If confirmed, these
data will indicate that Cosmos 1 made it to orbit. We will continue
to monitor planned telemetry sessions and will be working with U.S.
Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to locate Cosmos 1. The Planetary Society
will continue to post updates on its website at http://planetary.org
as information on the status of the spacecraft becomes available.

Post here if you would, what becomes the the mission.