Japan's Flimsy Ikaros Space Kite Due to Launch to Float on the Solar Wind

Japan is due to fire a H-IIA rocket into space tomorrow, with a rather special payload aboard: The Ikaros space yacht, a beautiful vehicle that's an experimental test bed for solar sail technology. 

The launch is scheduled for early Japan time on Tuesday morning (1844 EST today), and the H-IIA is actually carrying two major payloads: In addition to Ikaros, it's ferrying the Venus Planetary Climate Orbiter aloft too, a partner vehicle to the Venus Express space craft already launched by the...