Rosetta flies past Earth
Posted: Mon, Nov 16, 2009, 5:53 AM ET (1053 GMT)
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft made a final swingby of Earth on Friday en route to its cometary destination. Rosetta passed 2,481 kilometers above the Indonesian island of Java at 2:45 am EST (0745 GMT) Friday on its third and final flyby of Earth. Rosetta, launched in March 2004, made those flybys, plus one of Mars, to put it on a trajectory to reach the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will arrive at the comet in 2014 and rendezvous with it, deploying a lander.
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft made a final swingby of Earth on Friday en route to its cometary destination. Rosetta passed 2,481 kilometers above the Indonesian island of Java at 2:45 am EST (0745 GMT) Friday on its third and final flyby of Earth. Rosetta, launched in March 2004, made those flybys, plus one of Mars, to put it on a trajectory to reach the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will arrive at the comet in 2014 and rendezvous with it, deploying a lander.
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