Rosetta has completed its final manoeuvre and is now on a collision course with Comet 67P/C-G.
A small thruster burn starting 20:48:11 UTC and lasting 208 seconds has set the craft on course towards its final destination.
The spacecraft’s navigation cameras will soon take a set of five images to confirm that the spacecraft is on target, and to refine the predicted impact time.
These are expected to be downlinked by 0300 UT / 0500 CEST and we therefore expect that the next report, with the updated time and at least one of those NAVCAM images, will be around 0400 UT / 0600 CEST.
Discussion: 7 comments
What speed of collision do you predict? Why didn’t you provide such interesting information? Also, why didn’t you try to land on it gently as gently possible?
All of this info is available in many previous posts and also here: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_grand_finale_frequently_asked_questions
Hi PAW38, Where have you been? A couple of years of this blog, still there for you to see all the amazing images and evolution of the ever morphing Rosetta and Philae Saga! After this grand ending, you should rewind to the beginning my friend for an incredibly wonderful ride. Kudo’s to Emily, Claudia for chairing the blog and to the entire team!
Where can we see the images?
The first one from the descent was just published 🙂
We’ll be sharing them on the blog and social media channels as normal, in the first instance via ESA’s Space in Images:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/content/search?SearchText=Rosetta&img=1&SearchButton=Go
I’ve only just commented here this evening, Emily, but I’d like to extend to you and all the people involved in this grand achievement, my deepest admiration and gratitude.
What you have done is beyond wonderful — it is nothing less than spectacular.
I was a boy when Sputnik went up and Gagarin and Shepard amazed the world. I can tell you where I was when Armstrong made that first extraterrestrial footprint. I have followed all the achievements of space programs of nations around the world. Amazement, awe and joy have been the treasures I’ve reaped. Not to mention that my worldview extends far beyond the earthly horizon.
I cannot tell you how valuable those things are to me. And now this. To ride on the wind of a comet and send back the secrets that is has kept since before Earth was born. Marvelous. It’s all just so marvelous.
From the depths of this child’s heart, Thank You ESA and all who brought this to fruition.
Hail and farewell, Rosetta. You have made us all wiser.
Bye Rosetta,
You made us dream, you made us wonder, you made us excite, you made us enjoy, you made us cry… After sharing some of the most amaizinz discoveries, of the spatial era you now deserve to rest in your world, for the eternity…