DARMSTADT, Germany — Landing with a bounce after traveling 4 billion miles, a European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully reaching the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet — a cosmic first designed to answer big questions about the universe.
The landing by the washing machine-sized crafter after a decade-long journey required immense precision, as even the slightest error could have resulted in stellar calamity.
READ: Cosmic first: European spacecraft lands on comet
Highlights from the Rosetta mission media briefings at ESA's Space Operations Centre on November 12 up to the moment the Philae lander separates from the Rosetta spacecraft. and starts the 7-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Highlights from coverage of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission soft-landing its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved.
Animation of Rosetta’s deployment of Philae to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.