FYI,

"Japan Deloys Solar Sail Film in Space"
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Press Release via SpaceRef
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=14782

(See link for photos of deployed solar sail)

: ISAS succeeded in deploying a big thin film for solar sail in space
: for the first time in the world.

: The launch was the culmination of a historic new technology, the
: world-first successful full-fledged deployment of big films for
: solar sail.

: A solar sail is a spacecraft without a rocket engine. It is pushed
: along directly by light particles from the Sun, reflecting off its
: giant sails. Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over
: almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in
: existence that can one day take us to the stars.

: Although both scientists and science-fiction authors have long
: foreseen it, no solar sail has ever been launched until now. It is
: because superlight material for thin film which could bear
: extremely critical environment in space. Now due to the development
: of material and production technology, we can utilize promising
: film materials for solar sail, and the experimental deployment
: trials toward realization of solar sail have been initiated in some
: countries.

: The S-310 rocket which was launched from Uchinoura Space Center at
: 15:15 of August 9, 2004, carried two kinds of deploying schemes of
: films with 7.5 micrometers thickness. A clover type deployment was
: started at 100 seconds after liftoff at 122 km altitude, and a fan
: type deployment was started at 169 km altitude at 230 seconds after
: liftoff, following the jettison of clover type system. Both
: experiments of two types deployment were successful, and the rocket
: splashed on the sea at about 400 seconds after liftoff.

Mark Reiff