More on the solar sailer

Or should it be solar sailor? From CNN:

'No regrets' over solar sail loss
Though their history-making endeavor has stalled, organizers of a bold attempt to fly the world's first solar sail spacecraft say they have no regrets and that future efforts will benefit from what they learned.

"We have no regrets over what happened," said Bruce Murray, a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who founded the group with Friedman and late astronomer Carl Sagan. "Frankly, we were all sick of the project. The mismanagement was so great we all knew it was a train wreck waiting to happen. I'm surprised it didn't explode on launch and sink that submarine. But then, I lost the betting pool too."

When asked what lessons might be learned from this failure Murray replied "Of course future efforts will definitely benefit from what we learned: don't bother; there's better things to spend a couple of billion dollars on. Like my pension account."

Project director Louis D. Friedman, a veteran of military and civilian space programs including NASA's Mariner, Voyager and Magellan projects was quoted as saying, "At least now we can get on with our lives instead of pretending we really believed in that piece of junk. I'm just glad I can hit the beach tomorrow instead of sitting around listening to a tin can beep in my headset. Sad? hell, no. I mean, it wasn't my money."



Oh brave new world......


~A