Launch date set for solar sailing ship

It seems to be the week for finding out about people doing stuff that was mooted 30 years ago ... "The acceleration will be tiny, but in the course of a day the spacecraft may have gained 45 metres a second or 100 miles an hour. After 100 days in the sun it could get up to 10,000mph. In three years, such a spacecraft could be the fastest manmade thing in space, without using a drop of rocket fuel."
Of course an issue about space exploration, it seems to me, is escaping the earth's atmosphere; there's a global warming dimension to it, though how big an issue I don't know though at least it is a way of going that does at least cut down on fuel use once the atmosphere is cleared. And then there's the perennial issue of whether it is moral given the resources being expended [or not] on making life better for billions on our own planet now...
hmmm
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Launch date set for solar sailing ship: