When will Europes comet chaser makes last call home (AFP)?”
PARIS (AFP) – A billion-euro (1.5-billion-dollar) European spacecraft made a final flyby of Earth on Friday, using the planet as a gravitational slingshot to speed to a rendezvous with a comet in 2014. “Rosetta passed over the ocean, just south of the Indonesian island of Java, at exactly 08:45:40 CET,” or Central European Time, which is 0745 GMT and 40 seconds, European Space Agency (ESA) announced. “The swingby was pre-planned and fully automated, and the spacecraft was in direct communication with Earth at the time.” The probe sped past Earth at just over 13.3 kilometers per second, equal to 47,800 kph or 29,925 mph. Thanks to the gravitational catapult, the spacecraft accelerated by a massive 3.6 km/s (12,960 kph, 8,100 mph). Europe’s comet chaser has now flown a little over 4.5 billion kms of its 7.1-billion-km (4.4-billion-mile) journey that will take it to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the outer Solar System in May 2014. Rosetta is carrying a fridge-sized lab, Philae, that
Europe’s comet chaser makes last call home (AFP PARIS — A billion-euro (1.5-billion-dollar) European spacecraft made a final flyby of Earth on Friday, using the planet as a gravitational slingshot to speed to a rendezvous with a comet in 2014. “Rosetta passed over the ocean, just south of the Indonesian island of Java, at exactly 08:45:40 CET,” or Central European Time, which is 0745 GMT and 40 seconds, European Space Agency (ESA) announced. “The swingby was pre-planned and fully automated, and the spacecraft was in direct communication with Earth at the time.” The probe sped past Earth at just over 13.3 kilometers per second, equal to 47,800 kph or 29,925 mph. Thanks to the gravitational catapult, the spacecraft accelerated by a massive 3.6 km/s (12,960 kph, 8,100 mph). Europe’s comet chaser has now flown a little over 4.5 billion kms of its 7.1-billion-km (4.4-billion-mile) journey that will take it to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the outer Solar System in May 2014. Rosetta is
