Ten years after leaving Earth, one of humanity's most ambitious space missions is ready for its climax – a nail-biting drop onto the surface of a comet
MATT TAYLOR will soon experience the most agonising 28 minutes and 20 seconds of his life. That's how long it takes a signal to travel the 500 million kilometres from the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko to the European Space Agency's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. So that's how long Taylor must wait to find out if his team has made history by landing a spacecraft on a comet for the very first time.
The European Space Agency (ESA) craft, Rosetta, has been orbiting comet 67P since August. But the most daring part of the mission begins on 12 November. At 0835 GMT, Rosetta will cast adrift a washing-machine-sized lander ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
