Rosetta

Rosetta is a space probe financed by the European Space Agency. It was originally to have been launched on January 12, 2003 to rendezvous with the comet 46 P/Wirtanen[?] in 2011. However this plan was abandoned after the Ariane 5 failure on December 11, 2002. A new plan is under consideration to target the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko[?] with a launch in February, 2004 and rendezvous in 2014.

The probe is designed to orbit a comet and land on it. It is named after the Rosetta Stone.

Reference

• "Comet chaser has new quarry", BBC News Online, March 7, 2003; [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2830859.stm)

External link

• Rosetta website (http://sci.esa.int/home/rosetta/)