Slim Hope
In a statement released earlier today, the Planetary Society said it mostly agreed with the Russian space agency's assessment that Cosmos 1 was lost.
But the nonprofit also noted that the Cosmos 1 team "observed what appear to be signals" from the spacecraft as it traveled over ground stations in eastern Russia, the Marshall Islands, and Czech Republic shortly after launch.
"This might indicate that Cosmos 1 made it into orbit, but probably a lower one than intended," the statement said. It noted, however, that the "project team now considers this to be a very small probability."
Despite the daunting odds, mission scientists continued efforts to contact Cosmos 1. The nonprofit said it was working with the U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks military space missions, to gather additional data on Cosmos 1.
"If the spacecraft made it to orbit, its autonomous program might be working, and after [four] days the sails could automatically deploy," the Planetary Society said. "While the chances of this are very, very small, we still encourage optical observers to see if the sail can be seen after that time."
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