Rosetta: U-M engineers involved in historic mission

Michigan engineers are deeply involved in the historic Rosetta mission that, for the first time in human history, landed a spacecraft on a comet today. Rosetta, a European Space Agency-led mission, arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 14 and its Philae lander touched down just before noon Eastern time. Mission control received signals from Philae confirming its arrival but they are still determining its full status. Michigan Engineering planetary scientist Michael Combi, a co-investigator on several Rosetta instruments, had to follow the landing from an out-of-town meeting. "Signal from the surface received!! Whew!" he said in an email. Combi, the Freeman Devold Miller Collegiate Research Professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, withheld further comment until ESA officials confirm the lander's complete condition.