Philae's extraordinary comet landing relived (2024)
A decade after Philae's historic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, ESA revisits the mission's key moments, including the lander's unexpected touchdowns and the scientific breakthroughs achieved despite operational challenges. The 2024 retrospective highlights how Philae's data transformed understanding of comets.
Background
- The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission launched in 2004, spent a decade chasing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and in 2014 deployed the Philae lander — the first-ever soft landing on a comet's surface. Philae's landing was bumpy (it bounced twice before settling in a shadowed spot where its solar panels couldn't recharge), and it operated for only ~60 hours before going silent. This ESA article is a 10th-anniversary retrospective on that landing.