Edition: English | 中文简体 | 中文繁体 Монгол
Homepage > Sci Tech Video

Spacecraft crash-lands onto comet, ends 12-year mission

CCTV.com

09-30-2016 20:15 BJT

The European Space Agency has announced the Rosetta spacecraft has successfully crash-landed onto the comet it has orbited and probed for two years. That ends the probe's 12-year mission to investigate the birth of the Solar System. 

Rosetta had been programmed for a "controlled impact" on comet 67-P, at a human walking pace of about 90 centimeters per second, after a 14-hour freefall from an altitude of 19 kilometers.

Rosetta and the lander probe Philae travelled more than six billion kilometres over 10 years to reach the comet in August 2014.

Follow us on

  • Please scan the QR Code to follow us on Instagram

  • Please scan the QR Code to follow us on Wechat