on 12 nov 2014 space expiration history was made when phiae became the first spacecraft to land on a comet but the mission didn't all go to plan back in 2004 European space agency (esa) launched to rosetta spacecraft carrying the phiae soft lander. on 6 Aug 2014 arrived at its target a comet called 67p/ churyumov Gersimenko . Having placed rosetta into orbit around the comet by november the esa was ready to deploy phiae. The lander touched down at 15:34 utc after a journey of just under seven hours everyone at esa mission control (below) was happy with progress up to then Owing to the comets weak gravity harpoons right were meant to fire into surface to keep it anchored a thruster was also supposed to counter any bounce from the landing however none of these landing systems functioned correctly and phiae bounced back up reaching around 1km (0.6 mi). At 17:25 utc phiae landed once more and bounced before coming to rest in shadow away from it planned landing site it had just enough time take some samples before contact was lost on 15 nov owing to failing batteries.but the esa still consider the mission a success as all the primary objectives were fulfilled.
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