ESA confirms that Philae did land on comet 67P/C-G. However, it appears that the harpoon meant to anchor it to the extremely low gravity object did not fire as intended, so the lander may have bounced and landed again! More details are coming tomorrow. But in the meantime check out the site linked below - particularly the Where is Rosetta animation. It demonstrates exactly how the decade-long mission progressed through multiple Earth and Mars slingshot gravitational boosts to arrive at the comet.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:00:05 +0000