After a ten-year journey through the Solar System ESA's Rosetta spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. The mission’s lander, Philae, will be deployed on Wednesday, November 12 at 08:35 UTC from a distance of 22.5 km from the center of the comet.
Philae will land about seven hours later, with confirmation expected to arrive at Earth at around 16:00 UTC.
Philae is then expected to obtain the first images ever taken from a comet's surface. It also will drill into the surface to study the composition and witness close up how a comet changes as its exposure to the Sun varies. The lander can remain active on the surface for approximately two-and-a-half days.
Rosetta will remain in orbit around the comet through 2015 and continue detailed studies of the comet as it approaches the Sun and then moves away.
