This space adventure beginned on March 2, 2014, when „Rosetta“ was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket. The comet which is hurtling through space at 135,000 km/h was reached on August 6, this year, and the scientific equipment divided between the space orbiter and the robotic lander it’s scheduled to orbit 67P/C-G for 17 months.
Now, Wednesday, the NASA’s scientist Claudia Alexander, 55, and her colleagues from the ESA , reunited at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), in Darmstadt, Germany, are attempting to know if the spacecraft has made it to the comet’s surface, and if it’s still functioning.”There are so many things that could go wrong,” Alexander said recently from her office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, California.
Rosetta’s Philae lander will attempt to land on the comet on Nov. 12, 2014. This is a risky mission because “this comet is very, very rough,” as Andreas Accomazzo, Rosetta operations manager at the European Space Agency described. None of the landing options were good and the „Rosetta“ team picked the one considered as less risky. The signal from „Rosetta“ reaches Earth with a 28 minutes and 20 seconds so this will be a suspense time about the success of mission.
