CTV.ca | Solar-powered spacecraft prepared to 'set sail':

"Not only does the project represent a potential breakthrough in space travel, it is also a demonstration of the growing role of private enterprise in developing such technology.

Privately funded by the Planetary Society -- a leading non-profit, non-governmental space advocacy group co-founded by the late astronomer Carl Sagan -- Cosmos 1 was developed with a budget of only $4 million US."