ESA · orbiter ended
Rosetta
ESA's Rosetta was the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and to put a lander, Philae, on its surface.
- Launch
- 2 March 2004
- End of mission
- 30 September 2016
Trajectory
Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -226) every 3 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.
Mission timeline
- Launch on an Ariane 5 from Kourou
- Mars flyby
- Flyby of asteroid Steins
- Flyby of asteroid Lutetia
- Arrival at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
- Philae makes the first landing on a comet
- Rosetta ends its mission with a controlled descent onto the comet
Targets: Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, Šteins, Lutetia, Mars
About the mission
Rosetta spent ten years catching up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, using flybys of Earth and Mars and passing asteroids Steins and Lutetia on the way. It arrived in August 2014 and found a strange two-lobed nucleus. In November 2014 its lander Philae touched down, bounced and came to rest in a shadowed spot, yet still returned data for about two and a half days. Rosetta itself followed the comet through its closest approach to the Sun, measuring its gas and dust, and finished the mission on 30 September 2016 by gently descending onto the surface.