Just reading the news and came across thisstory I had somewhat been following (read "heard about on the news") and it seems that "the little satellite that could" didn't. Now this is not the fault of the space craft mind you, rather I would say it would be the fault of the "Mission Planners".
First thing that made me shake my head was the fact they launched this in a missile from a Russian submarine somewhere in the Barents Sea. Granted a missle is nothing more than a rocket that is SUPPOSED to reach it's target and THEN crash into it. So I guess it COULD be modified to carry 4 million dollars worth of "space sails" into orbit. Yeah I guess I can see that.
Now here is where "it's not rocket science guys" comes into play. They tried this back in 2001 aboard (yes you guessed it) a similar missile with *shock* FAILURE. I'm all about shoe string budgets and all, look at what it has done for the Mars missions with NASA. Oh wait... My bad. Those didn't go that good either.
I am no "rocket scientist", but something tells me Russian missles, shoestring budgets, and space just don't mix. I guess the adage of "fool me once- shame on you.. Fool me twice- shame on me" doesn't really apply to the folks at the Planetary Society.
The picture of the girl is Carl Sagan's daughter with a Sidekick before the "S.S. Minnow" was lost. Certainly not the finer times of Yuri Gagarin, Sputnik, or my personal favorite Laika the space dog.