This Friday, ESA’s twelve year old satellite will be plummeting into the comet it has spent the past couple years of its life orbiting. Yes, that means it spent 10 years traveling to comet 67P/C-G swinging by the Earth, Mars, and other asteroids in order to gain enough speed to reach its final destination. But for as epic of a swing dance Rosetta’s arrival plan was, its decent will be much more straightforward, literally a burn straight towards the landing spot on the comet.
Image of Rosetta’s journey to comet 67P/C-G via ESA
Image of Rosetta’s Landing Maneuvers via ESA
This burn will happen at 10:40 GMT (6:40 am EDT) on September 30th. ESA live coverage will begin at 7:45 GMT (3:45 am EDT) and end at 12:15 GMT (8:15 am EDT). They have not released a link to the public stream yet, but they responded to me today saying that it should be up sometime next week. Whenever they add it, I will add it to this post, so don’t worry just come back on September 30th and it will all be set!
EDIT: Here is where to tune in to that stream. Also NASA JPL will be hosting a live stream with commentary on their website starting 6:00am EDT (10:00 GMT).
Landing locations of Philae and Rosetta on Comet 67P/C-G via ESA
