The Rosetta space probe was launched in 2004 with the aim of ten years later managing to land on a comet and take samples as it orbited around the sun. In those ten years, it has made several orbits of the Earth to pick up speed before being flung out to near the orbit of Jupiter. After a few years, it was put into hibernation and left to drift with the hope that it would one day wake up and begin its final approach to carry out its mission.
And ten years later, that time is now.
Late on Monday, the probe sent its first signal back to Earth after waking from hibernation, only a mere 800m miles from home. And now ESA can try to carry out its pretty impressive plan of trying to place a lander on a comet, which should hopefully take place sometime in August.
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