It’s been a long, slow trek for Rosetta to catch up to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but, more than 10 years after it was launched, it will finally meet up with its intended target within the next 16 hours — and you can watch it as it does.
Image: Artist’s conception of Rosetta’s arrival, combining an actual picture of the comet from this week with Rosetta itself added in / Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Comet image: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM
The ESA’s livestream will begin at 0800 GMT on Wednesday, August 6th (or, Wednesday at 1 a.m., Pacific time), and you can watch along with ithere.
The ESA also put together this timeline of anticipated events, so that you can follow along with mission ops as they finally introduce Rosetta to the comet it’s been pursuing for the last decade:
5 August
| GMT/CEST | Event | Details |
| 08:04/10:04 | BoT New Norcia tracking station | ESA 35 m station, Australia |
| 19:41/21:41 | EoT New Norcia tracking station | |
| 20:00/22:00 | BoT DSS-63 tracking station | NASA 70 m station Madrid |
6 August
| GMT/CEST | Event | Details |
| 00:05/02:05 | EoT DSS-63 | |
| 00:10/02:10 | BoT Malargüe tracking station | ESA 35 m station, Argentina |
| 02:41/04:41 | EoT Malargüe | |
| 02:50/04:50 | BoT DSS-15 | NASA 34 m station, Goldstone, USA |
| 07:35/09:35 | EoT DSS-15 | |
| 08:00/10:00 | BoT New Norcia tracking station AoS telemetry data flow (see below) | |
| Rosetta slews into position for thruster burn | ||
| 09:00:01/11:00:01 | Start: Comet Approach Trajectory – insertion thruster burn | Start of orbit entry manoeuvre. Must wait 1-way light time for confirmation on ground |
| 09:06:27/11:06:27 | End: thruster burn | Rosetta now on first leg of cometary orbit |
| Rosetta slews back to comet-pointing mode | ||
| 09:22:30/11:22:30 | Start of thruster burn confirmed on ground | |
| 09:28:56/11:28:56 | End of thruster burn confirmed on ground | |
| 19:43/21:43 | EoT New Norcia | |
| 19:48/21:48 | BoT Malargüe tracking station | |
Note:
All times subject to change
BoT: Beginning of track
EoT: End of track
AoS: Acquisition of signal
LoS: Loss of signal
One-way signal time 6 August: 22 min 29 sec
Thruster burn set to run 6 min 26 sec
