[meteorite-list] NASA TV Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdow (Rosetta)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6630

NASA TV Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdown
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 28, 2016

NASA Television and the agency's website will air the conclusion of ESA's 
(European Space Agency's) Rosetta mission from 3:15 to 5 a.m PDT (6:15 
to 8 a.m. EDT) Friday, Sept. 30, with NASA commentary, interviews and 
analysis of the successful mission. The Rosetta mission will end with 
the controlled descent of the spacecraft onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 
at around 4:20 a.m. PDT (7:20 a.m. EDT).

Rosetta was launched in 2004 carrying 11 science instruments, with several 
contributions from NASA including: the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta 
Orbiter (MIRO); the Alice spectrograph; the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES); 
and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) electronics package for 
the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion Neutral Analysis (ROSINA). NASA's 
Deep Space Network supports ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft 
tracking and navigation.

The spacecraft arrived at its destination comet on Aug. 6, 2014, becoming 
the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet and escort it 
as it orbits the sun. About two months later, the small Philae lander 
deployed from Rosetta touched down on the comet and bounced several times 
before alighting on the surface. Philae obtained the first images ever 
taken from the surface of a comet, and sent back valuable scientific data 
for several days. ESA is ending the mission because the spacecraft's ever-increasing 
distance from the sun has resulted in significantly reduced solar power 
to operate the spacecraft and its instruments.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from 
the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta is the first spacecraft 
to witness up close how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing 
intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn 
more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets 
may have played in the formation of planets.

In addition to NASA's contribution, Rosetta's Philae lander was provided 
by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute 
for Solar System Research, French National Space Agency, and Italian Space 
Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages 
the U.S. contributions to the Rosetta mission for the agency's Science 
Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO and hosts its 
principal investigator, Mark Hofstadter. The Southwest Research Institute 
developed Rosetta's IES and Alice instruments and hosts their principal 
investigators, James Burch for IES and Alan Stern for the Alice instrument.

NASA TV streaming video, downlink and updated scheduling information is 
at:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

The landing coverage will also be streamed live at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov

2016-248