The Planetary Society Cosmos2 Update June 23, 2008.

Thanks for posting that Mike. They say they have 'partial funding' for Cosmos 2 but this is a very vague statement. It would be nice to know percentage-wise how near they are to their target (just as Doug did here for the server fund), and what proportion of the total raised so far is from individual members' contributions. This is the sort of feedback used on TV fundraising events to motivate potential contributors to make 'one more push'. I think it could work for TPS as well. They spend a lot of money on fundraising and communicating already, but simply giving more detail in project progress reports would involve no extra cost.

Space.com article about the upcoming launch of a solar sail spacecraft (mentioned in the first paragraphs of the Cosmos2 update) on a Falcon 1 launch vehicle. The dates are a little firmer according to the space.com article.

Sometime "between July 29th to August 6th."

As an ardent supporter of the Planetary Society's solar sail project, but not being well informed about the background to it, I found this article (link from TPS blog) a truly excellent read. Official Planetary Society updates are always welcome but I think that only a sympathetic and well-informed outsider could have written such an illuminating piece.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/solar-sailing

I hope a lot of people read it and are moved to make contributions.

Update on solar sail progress and options on space.com: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/09...ew-mission.html

Feasibility study on using either spare Nano-sail D or mini-sail concept coming soon.

(Both options described in more detail on The Planetary Society solar sail update for April 2009)