Mar 2 2004
From The Space Library
ESA launched the Rosetta comet probe on an Ariane 5 rocket at 7:17 a.m. (UT) from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. ESA had created Rosetta ~ the first spacecraft designed to enter a comet's nucleus and to place a probe on a comet's surface ~ to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta, equipped with solar arrays spanning 105 feet (32 meters) and relying on solar cells for its power supply, was also the first probe designed to travel past Mars. Scientists hoped that, in studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ~ a remnant of a primitive nebula from which Earth's solar system emerged ~ Rosetta would help them understand more about the role of comets in forming the solar system and contributing to the development of life on Earth. (ESA, “Rosetta Begins Its 10-Year Journey to the Origins of the Solar System,” ESA news release 14-2004, 2 March 2004; Warren E. Leary, “Intricate European Mission Goes Hunting for a Comet,” New York Times, 24 February 2004.
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