Sailing through the Universe (update)

Bad news for Cosmos 1:

An attempt to launch the world's first solar sail spacecraft fizzled when a booster rocket failed less than two minutes after liftoff, showering debris over the Arctic Ocean, the Russian space agency said Wednesday.

However, I am certain that these attempts will not be abandoned:

But solar sailing is "extremely promising," according to a "restricted access" report prepared at Los Alamos in 1973. The technology would enable "travel essentially at will throughout the solar system, achieving quite reasonable flight times for a broad category of interesting interplanetary missions."

You can download the "restricted" report here.