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Last of the FATties
With about 4500 km separating Rosetta from comet 67P/C-G, the spacecraft will conduct the last of four FAT – ‘Far Approach Trajectory’ – orbit correction manoeuvres later today. The manoeuvre aims to...
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How Rosetta arrives at a comet
After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, ESA’s Rosetta is closing in on its target, but how does a spacecraft actually arrive at a comet? The journey began on 2 March...
View ArticleFinal thruster burns: First of the two CATies
With about 500 km separating Rosetta from comet 67P, it is still necessary to reduce the spacecraft’s speed with respect to the comet by some 3.5 m/s. The two remaining burns in the ten-burn series of...
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Comet at 1000 km
Rosetta sees the comet just five days before arrival. This image was acquired 1 August at 04:48 CEST (02:48 UTC) by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. The distance was...
View ArticleWhat’s happening in Rosetta mission control today
Yesterday’s orbit correction manoeuvre (OCM) – dubbed CATP for ‘Close Approach Trajectory – pre-Insertion’ – went off without problems, delivering the desired 3.2 m/s of speed decrease. We now have...
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Could you jump onto a comet?
Editor's note: In the past few weeks, have you wondered what it would be like riding along with Rosetta, sitting on top and watching comet 67P/C-G drawing steadily closer? And what if, as a...
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Tracking the spacecraft following a comet
One fascinating aspect of Rosetta operations is telecommunications: specifically, how mission controllers at ESOC are communicating with the intrepid spacecraft. The ESA tracking station network –...
View ArticleThe details on today’s orbit entry
Of the ten orbit correction manoeuvres (OCMs) that began on 7 May, there remains just one to complete: the last one is dubbed 'CATI' for 'Close Approach Trajectory – Insertion' and will take place...
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Rosetta flight control team in MCR
Team has taken console positions in Main Control Room for today's arrival. Team now in Main Control Room at ESOC. Credit: ESA
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Rosetta celebrated at Concordia Station
Adrianos Golemis and Cecile Lenormant enjoy some of the very limited daylight at Concordia Station, Antarctica, by taking their Rosetta model outside #Rosettaarewethereyet? Rosetta at Concordia Station
View ArticleWhat Rosetta does now
The animation below was updated just yesterday and shows a precise rendering of the orbit that Rosetta will now follow. This animation starts off with today's thruster burn and runs through until early...
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Could you walk on the surface of a comet?
An interesting update today by Professor Rhett Allain, who wonders – as we all do – whether you could jump off 67P/C-G and make it into orbit. Or even walk on the (dusty) surface..? You can see the...
View ArticleWhat’s up with Rosetta?
Today: a quick recap of Rosetta orbital manoeuvres in the past fortnight since arrival at Comet 67P/C-G on 6 August. Today’s post is covers multiple manoeuvres, which means that the mission operations...
View ArticleWhat’s up with Rosetta? Part 2
Today’s update continues our 18 August post, What’s Up with Rosetta. Here are some interesting numbers related to Rosetta’s path around the comet. Note that, in this post, we’re citing numbers as...
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Down, down we go to 29 km – or lower?
Editor’s note: The Rosetta mission control team are transitioning Europe’s intrepid craft onto the next stage of cometary operations: the Global Mapping Phase (GMP). The update below is based on inputs...
View ArticleREPLAY: Go/NoGo 2
Replay of the ESATV clip reporting live from ESOC's Main Control Room for the second Go/NoGo decision – confirming that Rosetta was in good health and that the commands to control the delivery sequence...
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ESA rolls out the big iron
If you've been following the Rosetta and Philae mission to comet 67P/C-G, you'll know that the crucial link between the mission controllers on Earth and the two craft voyaging hundreds of millions of...
View ArticleNASA's Canberra station now tracking Rosetta
The 34m antenna at NASA's deep space complex near Canberra, Australia, is now receiving signals from Rosetta, 511 million km from Earth. Thank you very much NASA and JPL for excellent support! Now!...
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Go ROSETTA!
Update from NASA/JPL's Susan Kurtik, responsible for support to external agencies at the Deep Space Network. The DSN is honored to be a part of this amazing adventure! We have been busy validating our...
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SIGNALS ACQUIRED FROM PHILAE 12:07 CET
Mission control have regained contact with Rosetta as expected after separation, and with Philae that is now descending onto the surface of Comet 67P/C-G.
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