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Rosetta
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Witness the landing of the ESA's Philae space probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the first spacecraft to land on a comet
first photograph taken on a comet's surface Rosetta spacecraft Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko photographed by Rosetta spacecraft asteroid: Lutetia
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first photograph taken on a comet's surface
first photograph taken on a comet's surface The surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in a photograph taken by the European Space Agency's Philae lander on November 12, 2014. Philae was carried to the comet by the Rosetta spacecraft.

Rosetta

European Space Agency spacecraft
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Written by
Dave Dooling
Education and Public Outreach Officer, National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak, New Mexico. Coauthor of Engineering Tomorrow.
Dave Dooling
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Article History

Rosetta, European Space Agency spacecraft that carried Philae, the first space probe to land on a comet. Rosetta was launched on March 2, 2004, by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on a 10-year mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The expectation was that, like the Rosetta Stone, the craft would help decode ancient history—in this case, the history of the solar system. Rosetta’s 654-million-km (406-million-mile) cruise involved three gravity-assisted flybys of Earth (in 2005, 2007, and 2009) and one of Mars (in 2007), as well as flybys of the asteroids Steins (in 2008) and Lutetia (in 2010). It entered ...(100 of 415 words)

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