Date set for solar spacecraft launch
 |  The solar sail could reach speeds of 100,000 miles an hour. |
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(CNN) -- A date has been set for the launch of the first ever solar sail-powered spacecraft.
Cosmos 1, which has been funded by The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, is scheduled to launch aboard a Russian rocket from a submarine in the Barents Sea on June 21.
Many experts believe the technology could one day power missions into deep space.
When the spacecraft reaches an orbiting altitude of 800 kilometers (500 miles), it will deploy eight triangular 15-meter (50-foot) sails that will be slowly propelled by the pressure of sunlight particles bouncing off them.
Over 24 hours, Cosmos 1 will reach a speed of just 100 miles an hour. But while fuel-powered spacecraft accelerate quickly before cruising at a constant speed, a solar sail would continue to gather momentum, eventually reaching a speed far in excess of anything achieved by conventional spacecraft.
After three years a solar sail would be traveling at more than 100,000 miles an hour -- a speed that would enable it to reach Pluto, the solar system's most outlying planet, in just five years.
Solar-sail power would also reduce the need for a spacecraft to carry heavy fuel reserves, increasing its range of mobility and enabling it to hover at a fixed point in space for longer periods of time.
NASA and other space agencies are developing their own versions of solar sail propulsion. Last month NASA tested a solar sail at its vacuum chamber in Ohio, while Japan has already deployed two solar sails in space.
"The data from this historic flight is critical because solar sailing is a technology that holds much promise for humanity's future in space," said Cosmos 1 project director Louis Friedman, who established The Planetary Society in 1980 with late American astronomer Carl Sagan to advance the exploration of the solar system.
"If successful, this technology may transform the way we explore space."
Once deployed, The Planetary Society said the solar sail would be clearly visible from earth as it orbited the planet.
