Rosetta ends odyssey, crash-lands on comet

Darmstadt, Germany, Sept. 30: Europe’s pioneering Rosetta spacecraft dramatically concluded its 12-year odyssey on Friday, crash-landing into the comet it orbited and probed for two years in a quest to demystify the Solar System’s origins.

There were tears, hugs and cheers at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany when spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot announced: “This is the end of the Rosetta mission.”

“Rock-n-roll Rosetta,” added a visibly moved Matt Taylor, project scientist, as he left the podium, holding his head.

Rosetta made a “controlled impact” with Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko at 10.41 GMT — the closing chapter in a trailblazing project.

Comets are thought to contain primordial material from our planetary system’s birth, preserved in a dark space deep freeze. Rosetta had been programmed to touch down at a human walking pace of about 90 cm per second, after a 14-hour freefall from an altitude of 19 kms. It joined long-spent robot probe Philae on the galactic wanderer’s rocky, cold surface for an eternal journey around the Sun.

Confirmation of the mission’s end came at 11.19 GMT, when the spacecraft’s signal disappeared from computer screens.

Mission scientists had expected Rosetta would bounce and tumble about before settling — but the craft’s final moments will forever remain a mystery as it was instructed to switch off on first impact. It was not designed to land. — PTI