WATCH ABOVE: The European Space Agency will attempt to land a craft on a comet later this month. The craft will also take pictures of the attempt and beam them back to Earth. The landing is expected to take around seven hours.
BERLIN – Scientists at the European Space Agency are making final preparations to land the first spacecraft on a comet next week.
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The launch of a small lander from ESA’s Rosetta space probe marks one of the key moments in the decade-long mission to examine comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
ESA scientists said Friday that a series of orbital manoeuvrs and calculations for the touchdown will take place over the coming days before the lander, dubbed Philae, is released at 0835 GMT (3:35 a.m. EST) Wednesday.
If all goes according to plan, the 100-kilogram (220-pound) lander will latch onto the comet’s icy surface seven hours later.
Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo told reporters he doesn’t doubt Philae will land on the comet, but “whether we hit it safely is another matter.”
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