[LINK] "Rosetta mission lands its probe on a comet and makes history"

[rfmcdonald]

The successful landing of the Philae probe on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is rightfully major news. The Washington Post's coverage is enthusiastic.

Tensions were high in the European Space Agency’s mission control room in Darmstadt, Germany as the clock ticked closer to the proposed landing window. At 4 a.m. Eastern Time, the team watched as Rosetta successfully ejected Philae, giving it a push towards the comet. Without thrusters or an engine, Philae simply dropped towards the piece of the comet that scientists thought it was most likely to successfully land on.

Then, a sigh of relief – Philae and Rosetta made satellite contact with each other. Without that connection, the probe would have been functionally lost.

With that final pre-landing checkpoint met, mission control hunkered down for seven hours of nerve-wracking free-fall, until Philae’s sensors finally confirmed a landing at 11:03 a.m. ET.

“So we’re there, and Philae is talking to us,” said Stephan Ulamec, lander manager, as cheers erupted around the giddy mission control team.