Philae space probe lands successfully on Comet 67P

In an historic mission that has taken more than a decade, the European Space Agency has successfully landed a probe called the Philae Lander on a comet 67P, marking the first time a space craft has ever successfully landed on the surface of a comet.

The probe, which has its own Twitter account, tweeted, “@Philae2014: Touchdown! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding.”

The European Space Agency’s ambitious attempt to place a spacecraft on the surface of a comet succeeded when a signal arrived at the mission control centre at Darmstadt, Germany, just after 11 am (EST). Cheers erupted. “We’re there and Philae is talking to us,” said Stephan Ulamec, the manager for the lander. “We are on the comet.”

ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain told a delighted audience: “This is a big step for human civilisation.”

Confirmation of the successful landing came at 4.04 pm (UK time) when ESA operations tweeted: “RECEIPT OF SIGNAL FROM SURFACE European Space Agency receiving signals from @Philae2014 on surface of comet #67P/CG #cometlanding.”

The lander, Philae, and its 10 instruments have now begun 64 hours of scientific operations before its batteries drain. Solar panels will then recharge the batteries, allowing intermittent operations over the coming months, about one hour every two days.

The Rosetta mission blasted off from French Guiana in March 2004 and has travelled more than four billion miles to reach its target. Scientists used gravity to act as a catapult, plotting co-ordinates which took the orbiter around the Earth three times and Mars once.

They even placed the spacecraft into deep space hibernation to conserve energy – it woke up after 31 months when it passed close to the Sun and was charged by solar rays.

Chief scientist Matt Taylor said the analysis of the data from the surface, together with Earth-based observations, could provide our most detailed ever snapshot of a comet.

It is believed that comets which formed over four billion years ago could hold the key to how Earth was ‘seeded’ with water and organic matter, providing the building blocks for life.

“This particular class of comet, Jupiter class comets, showed a similar flavour of water to what we see on Earth so possibly comets could have delivered the Earth’s oceans, so water – and ultimately us, because we are made of water,” Taylor told Sky News.

Philae’s success marks the first time people, or rather, their robotic representatives, have made a soft landing on anything other than a planet or a moon. It raises the number of objects on which this has been accomplished to five (besides 67/P, the others are Earth’s Moon, Venus, Mars and Titan, a satellite of Saturn).