24 April 2026
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Video: Mission control celebrates separation but anxiety builds over landing

12 November 2014 Astronomy Now

Paolo Ferri, ESA’s Head of Mission Operations, expresses relief at the apparently successful release of Philae from the Rosetta mothership but the potential loss of a crucial touchdown system has caused increased anxiety about the landing.

  • Comet
  • comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
  • Philae
  • Rosetta

Related Articles

News

Pew! Rosetta’s comet stinks!

30 October 2014 Keith Cooper

If it were possible to breath in space, one would smell a pungent aroma of rotten eggs, ammonia, vinegary sulphur dioxide and toxic hydrogen cyanide coming from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, according to sensors on the Rosetta mission.

News

Get ready for Comet Lovejoy!

29 December 2014 Ade Ashford

C/2014 Q2, better known as Comet Lovejoy, is brightening fast and rapidly heading into the Northern Hemisphere sky. Here’s our quick guide to viewing what will hopefully be the first naked-eye comet of 2015.

News

The surface of Rosetta’s comet is changing

20 September 2015 Stephen Clark

Views from Europe’s Rosetta comet orbiter show mysterious markings appearing on the nucleus of Comet 67P in recent months, with new surface features forming within a matter of weeks, and scientists are digging into the complex causes of the cometary erosion.

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News Headlines

  • Moon dust preserves record of life’s building blocks
    14 April 2026
  • Dark matter may come in multiple forms, new model suggests
    11 April 2026
  • Witness to history: Artemis II, lunar exploration and hope
    2 April 2026
  • Artificial Intelligence uncovers more than 100 new worlds in NASA data
    25 March 2026
  • XRISM solves gamma-Cas’s 50-year X-ray mystery
    24 March 2026

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