Arrival and the Philae landing – Rosetta

After orbiting the comet from August 2014, Rosetta released Philae for the first landing on a comet nucleus.

Rosetta reached comet 67P on 6 August 2014 and became the first spacecraft to orbit a comet [1, 7]. On 12 November Philae touched down at 15:34 GMT comet time, but its harpoons did not fire and it bounced twice before settling at 17:32 GMT [4].

In its shadowed final position Philae operated for nearly 57 hours on battery power and completed its main planned sequence of surface measurements before going silent [5].

Mosaic from Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera covering about 30 minutes around Philae’s first touchdown on 12 November 2014; the insets show the lander approaching the surface and then rebounding.

Related hardwareEuropean Space Agency (ESA)

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sourcesESA: Rosetta factsheet · ESA: Rosetta – Frequently asked questions · ESA Science & Technology: Rosetta status report no. 1 – Rosetta in good health — full list on Rosetta