Shortly after 11 a.m. EST the European Space Agency made history by successfully landing a space probe on a comet for the first time in history.
After 10 years, four billion miles and seven high-stress hours of some of the most difficult and precise landing maneuvers ever executed, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft successfully deployed its Philae landing probe to the surface of the 67P/Churyumox-Gerasimenko comet.
Mission controllers confirmed Philae’s touchdown via live stream and Twitter around 11:07 a.m. EST.
“We’re are on the comet!” #cometlanding https://t.co/c6xIWJp0TR — ESA (@esa) November 12, 2014
TOUCHDOWN for @Philae2014! #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/ZMBeB8ng3h — ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) November 12, 2014
Harpoons confirmed fired and reeled in. Flywheeel will now be switched off. @Philae2014 is on the surface of #67P#CometLanding — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) November 12, 2014
MT @esaoperations: Harpoons confirmed fired & reeled in. Flywheeel now be switched off. @Philae2014 is on the surface of #67P #CometLanding — ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) November 12, 2014
After getting the final OK from ESA mission control, the 220-pound Philae (which weighs less than an ounce in space) separated from Rosetta and began descending to 67P just after 4 a.m. EST, firing two harpoons into the surface and one thruster at the top of the probe, descending to the surface at 3.5 km-per-hour.
The $1.6 billion Rosetta mission has already captured an unprecedented amount of data on comets after orbiting and photographing 67P as well as analyzing its tail, and scientists believe Philae — which is equipped with 10 instruments — will reveal a wealth of information about the origins of the universe (comets are billions-year-old collections of ice, dust and gases left over from the creation of planets and stars). (RELATED: Watch The First-Ever Landing Of A Space Probe On A Comet Live)