Touchdown! After a Bumpy Landing, Philae is Stable on Comet After 10 Years with Rosetta Spacecraft

It's a new era in space exploration. ESA's Rosetta mission has officially managed to soft-land its Philae probe on a comet, which is the first time in history such an extraordinary feat has been accomplished.

Rosetta first began its mission in 2004. Since then, the spacecraft has spent the past decade maneuvering to rendezvous with the comet, named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. While it was moving toward the comet, though, it also collected additional data; it performed three flybys of Earth, one of Mars and also passed closely to two asteroids.

Now, all the waiting as paid off. After a seven-hour approach to the comet, Philae touched down on the comet and relayed the signal back to Earth via Rosetta at 16:03 GMT on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

"Our ambitious Rosetta mission has secured a place in the history books: not only is it the first to rendezvous with and orbit a comet, but it is now also the first to deliver a lander to a comet's surface," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General, in a news release. "With Rosetta we are opening a door to the origin of planet Earth and fostering a better understanding of our future. ESA and its Rosetta mission partners have achieved something extraordinary today."

Touchdown was planned to take place at a speed of about 1 m/s. In theory, Philae's three-legged landing gear would absorb the impact to prevent rebound once an ice screw in each of its "feet" drove into the surface. At the same time, Philae's two harpoons fired and locked the probe to the surface.

Yet that's not what happened. Before Philae separated from Rosetta, scientists detected a problem with the small thruster on top that was designed to counteract the recoil of the harpoons to push the lander down onto the surface. In fact, engineers state that Philae may have bounced hundreds of meters off of the surface after initially touching down, according to BBC News. That said, Philae still managed to touch down-even if it was a bumpy landing.

In the next few days, Philae will send images and data back to Earth. The detailed measurements that Philae makes at its landing site will complement and calibrate the extensive remote observations made by the orbiter covering the whole comet.

"Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our solar system," said Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta project scientist. "What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? What role did comets play in this evolution? How do comets work? Today's successful landing is undoubtedly the cherry on the icing of a 4 km-wide cake, but we're also looking further ahead and into the next stage of this groundbreaking mission, as we continue to follow the comet around the sun for 13 months, watching as its activity changes and its surface evolves."