HISTORY BECKONS FOR ROSETTA COMET MISSION (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Saturday, November 08, 2014, 11:38

A first for space exploration: No probe has previously made a soft touchdown on a comet

All is on course for Wednesday's ambitious attempt to put a probe on the surface of a comet.

Europe's Rosetta spacecraft is currently making a long arc around 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Shortly after 06:00 GMT, the orbiter will make a sharp turn towards the ice mountain, accelerate, and then eject the Philae robot towards its target.

Separation should occur at about 08:35 GMT. Touchdown is expected roughly seven hours later.

There are a series of major decision points in the run-up to the ejection - what the controllers back here on Earth call Go/No-go decisions.

It is at these moments that the flight team at the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will assess progress and choose either to move forward to the next pinch point, or to abort and regroup for a second landing attempt in a couple of weeks' time.

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