Note: Only forum leaders may delete posts.
*HTML is ON *UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
'Philae is on the comet!' ESA probe makes historic first touchdown on comet [i]A small European space probe has become the first manmade object in history to touch down on the surface of a comet And it may have done it twice. Philae, the European Space Agency's three-legged lander, successfully fell to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a seven-hour, suspenseful descent on Wednesday (Nov. 12). The unprecedented touchdown was confirmed at 11:03 a.m. EST (1603 GMT), 28 minutes and 20 seconds after it occurred, given the time needed for the lander's signal to reach Earth. "We're there and Philae is talking to us," Stephan Ulamec, the director of the Philae landing team at the DLR German Aerospace Center, said just moments after cheers erupted in the control room. "We are sitting on the surface. We are on the comet."[/i]
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 1999-2024 collectSPACE. All rights reserved.