Rosetta’s historic mission is coming to an end tomorrow. On September 30, it will have a controlled descent onto the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The spacecraft is set to execute the controlled collision with a predicted end time within 20 minutes of 11:20 Greenwich Mean Time, (6:20 AM Eastern, 5:20 AM Central Standard Time.)
Rosetta was built by the European Space Agency and launched in March of 2004, along with its lander Philae, to study the comet. On its way there, Rosetta flew past Mars as well as asteroids 21 Lutetia and 286 Šteins.
Now Rosetta is set to make its final landing on Comet 67P. Once the spacecraft has successfully collided with the comet, the Rosetta blog and Twitter accounts will provide a confirmation. This confirmation will be sent out about 40 minutes after the landing, though, due to signal travel time.
The landing will have a live streaming and can be watched at rosetta.esa.int on ESA’s Facebook page, or here.
