The Rosetta landing will be broadcast live on Eutelsat 7B in HD this week.
The Eutelsat 7B satellite is part of an exceptional infrastructure put in place by ESA to share the historic landing of the Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on Wednesday, November12.
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on August 6 after a ten-year journey through the Solar System. The landing site, currently known as Site J and located on the smaller of the comet’s two ‘lobes’, was selected just six weeks after Rosetta arrived at the comet.
The mission’s lander, Philae, will separate from the Rosetta spacecraft on November 12 at 08:35 GMT (09:35 CET) from a distance of 22.5 km from the centre of the comet. It will land about seven hours later, with confirmation expected to arrive at Earth at around 16:00 GMT (17:00 CET).
Three control centres are involved in the landing: the Rosetta Mission Operations Centre at ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany; the Lander Control Centre at DLR in Cologne, Germany; and the Lander Science Operations and Navigation Centre at CNES in Toulouse, France. Activities at each control centre will be closely linked and will be featured in a combined English-language ESA TV programme broadcast from ESOC.
Viewers across Europe can watch the climax to the Rosetta mission via the Eutelsat 7B satellite located at 7 degrees East on 12676.83MHz/V; symbol rate: 7200 FEC: 5/6 Mod: DVBS2/8PSK
The Rosetta mission schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, November 11
19:00 GMT / 20:00 CET Go-No Go #1
Wedensday, November 12
06:00-07:00 GMT / 07:00-08:00 CET: Final preparation manoeuvre and Go/No-Go # 5 for lander separation
08:30-09:15 GMT / 09:30-10:15 CET: Lander separation scheduled at 09:03 GMT/10:03 CET
11:00-12:15 GMT / 12:00-13:15 CET: Science update and first pictures expected around 12:00 GMT / 13:00 CET
14:00-15:30 GMT/ 15:00-16:30 CET: Rosetta science / Last preparations and then await landing
15:45-16:15 GMT /16:45-17:15 CET: Landing expected at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CET (+/- 15 mn)
17:00 GMT /18:00 CET earliest: Presentation of first panoramic image from the comet
