Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

[jsmaje]

She was long lost but now found:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space ... ilae_found

And mother craft Rosetta is planned to (slowly) crash land at the end of this month, so more exciting data and videos to come.

[jsmaje]

So, it's finally R.I.P. Rosetta, having joined her daughter Philae on the surface of comet 67P:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta

I watched the live esa broadcast during the final moments of this 12 yr project, which were quite emotional.
To have made a slow crash at the planned spot on a rotating comet some 833,303,000 km away now travelling at 13 km/s away from the sun, and after accompanying and surviving all the way around it's solar encounter, is a tremendous accomplishment.
Besides pictures, science data was obtained all the way down to the surface that will be of great value in understanding one type of building block of the solar system.

As a Brit, I sincerely hope that our recent vote to leave the European Union won't affect our scientific collaboration worldwide in such projects in the future.

John

[caprarom]

Thanks, John. I was looking forward to your post, especially since I didn't get up early (here in Michigan) for the live broadcast. Mike