ESA's historical Rosetta mission ends on Friday; NASA to air its descent!

Image courtesy: ESA/ATG medialab

New Delhi: The world's first rendezvous with a comet, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission, which began its probe in 2014 after a 10-year journey through the Solar System since its launch in 2004, will finally come to an end on Friday, September 30.

The mission will end with a controlled descent to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's surface.

Rosetta has served scientists well, through a wealth of information that it sent during its closest approach to the Sun.

The final hours of descent will enable Rosetta to make many once-in-a-lifetime measurements, including analysing gas and dust closer to the surface than ever possible before, and taking very high resolution images of the comet nucleus, including the open pits of the Ma’at region, where the spacecraft is expected to make its controlled impact, ESA said, as per The Hindu.

With such a huge mission coming to an end soon, American space giant NASA has decided to air the conclusion of the Rosetta mission from 6:15 am to 8:00 am EDT Friday, September 30, along with NASA commentary, interviews and analysis of the successful mission.

Science and space enthusiasts can check out the coverage on NASA TV.