The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft is getting ready to take the next step in its journey to study a comet in deep space.
After studying the comet for about two months, the ESA has officially given the go-ahead to deliver a lander, called Philae, to the surface on Nov. 12.
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The landing spot, Site J, is located on the smaller portion of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s two "lobes."
It’s been a long journey — the spacecraft was launched in March 2004 and remained in hibernation, in space, until January 2014.
The spacecraft’s mission, according to NASA, is to "study the comet at close range as it transforms from a quiet nugget of ice and rock … to a sun warmed dynamo.”
Although the lander has been given the go-ahead, there are still quite a few decisions the ESA will need to make before it can touch down on the comet's surface. The agency calls these Go/No-Go decisions, which include confirmation of proper trajectory, the lander’s readiness for separation, and even a maneuver to put the lander on the right trajectory for touching down on the comet.
If anything goes wrong, Rosetta’s mission manager Fred Jansen says the ESA “will have to abort and revise the timeline accordingly for another attempt.”