<h1>&nbsp;Rosetta</h1>

<figure class="image image-narrow" data-widget="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_67P_on_19_September_2014_NavCam_mosaic.jpg"><img alt="Comet 67P" src="assets/comet-67p.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1131px" /></a>

<figcaption contenteditable="true">Comet 67P in September 2014</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>Rosetta is a robotic space probe built and launched by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency">European Space Agency</a>. Along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)">Philae</a>, its lander module, Rosetta is performing a detailed study of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67P/Churyumov%E2%80%93Gerasimenko">comet 67P/Churyumov&ndash;Gerasimenko (67P)</a>. On 12 November 2014 the mission performed the first soft landing on a comet and returned data from the surface.</p>

<h2>Mission overview</h2>

<p>Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004 on an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5">Ariane 5</a> rocket and reached the comet on 6 August 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. (Previous missions had conducted successful flybys of seven other comets.) It is one of ESA&#39;s Horizon 2000 cornerstone missions. The spacecraft consists of the Rosetta orbiter, which features 12 instruments, and the Philae lander, with nine additional instruments. The Rosetta mission will orbit 67P for 17 months and is designed to complete the most detailed study of a comet ever attempted. The spacecraft is controlled from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Operations_Centre">European Space Operations Centre</a> (ESOC), in Darmstadt, Germany. The planning for the operation of the scientific payload, together with the data retrieval, calibration, archiving and distribution, is performed from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Astronomy_Centre">European Space Astronomy Centre</a> (ESAC), in Villanueva de la Ca&ntilde;ada, near Madrid, Spain. It has been estimated that in the decade preceding 2014, some 2,000 people assisted in the mission in some capacity.</p>

<p>The probe is named after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone">Rosetta Stone</a>, a stele of Egyptian origin featuring a decree in three scripts. The lander is named after the Philae obelisk, which bears a bilingual Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription. A comparison of its hieroglyphs with those on the Rosetta Stone catalysed the deciphering of the Egyptian writing system. Similarly, it is hoped that these spacecraft will result in better understanding of comets and the early Solar System. In a more direct analogy to its namesake, the Rosetta spacecraft also carries a micro-etched nickel alloy Rosetta disc donated by the Long Now Foundation inscribed with 13,000 pages of text in 1200 languages.</p>

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<p>Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)">Wikipedia.org</a></p>
