The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Context image of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with the original five candidate landing sites for Rosetta’s lander Philae, and with the backup, Site C, indicated.
The regions are marked on OSIRIS narrow-angle camera images taken on 16 August from a distance of about 100 km. The comet nucleus is about 4 km across.
The sites were assigned a letter from an original preselection of 10 possible sites identified A to J. The lettering scheme does not signify any ranking. On 13 September, Site J was chosen as the primary, with Site C as the backup.
Full story: 'J' marks the spot for Rosetta's lander
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA