Cosmos 1 is a privately-funded attempt to launch a Solar Sail into space. Dedicated to the enduring memory of Carl Sagan, the Solar Sail is to be launched from a submerged submarine in the Barents Sea (See my post on May 07, 2005 for more details on the solar sail).
Now in another few hours (at around 4:09PM New York Time), the rocket carrying the sail will be launched!! I am keeping my fingers crossed:).
Latest Update: The Russian space agency said the attempt to launch the solar sail space vehicle was not successful because the booster rocket's engine failed soon after it blasted into space. The booster failed 83 seconds after its launch from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, and the vehicle was lost :(.

Cosmos-1 (Courtesy: The Planetary Society)Update: Hooraay! The launch went on flawlessly, and the first private solar sail mission is on the way:):).
Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sail spacecraft, launched in the tip of a converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea for the start of a mission that cost just $4 million.
Mission operations personnel monitoring the spacecraft from the Planetary Society's three-story bungalow in Pasadena got word from mission operations in Moscow of the rocket's take off just after 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT).
Cosmos 1 will orbit for several days to acclimatize its instruments to the vacuum of space before its twin sails are deployed via inflatable booms. Mission controls now plan to deploy the sails late on Saturday.
Each sail is made up of eight triangular blades whose combined structure looks like a disk. The reflective Mylar sails are about 5 microns thick, or about one-quarter the thickness of a plastic trash bag. After it deploys its sails, Cosmos 1 will be visible as it circles the Earth about once every 100 minutes:):).