Rosetta: Latest from ESOC

Date: Thu, Sep 29, 2016 GMT

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Type: ESA TV Exchange

Format: 16:9

Rosetta is set to complete its mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September.

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014, following a ten-year journey through the Solar System after its launch on 2 March 2004. The Philae lander was sent down to the surface of the comet on 12 November 2014.

After two years living with the comet, returning an unprecedented wealth of scientific information during its closest approach to the Sun, Rosetta and the comet are now heading out beyond the orbit of Jupiter again.

Travelling further from the Sun than ever before, and faced with a significant reduction in solar power that it needs to operate, Rosetta’s destiny has been set: it will follow Philae down onto the surface of the comet.

Confirmation of the end of mission is expected from ESA’s main control room at 11:20 GMT or 13:20 CEST +/- 20 minutes (Earth time) on 30 September, with the spacecraft set on a collision course with the comet the evening before.

This B Roll will provide the latest images and interviews from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, where this historic mission is being controlled.

More information at: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta

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