Germany Just Landed a probe on a comet

[Abiding Now]

And where was NASA? Gutted by our illustrious leaders.

America second only to everyone else.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by mfblume

The Rosetta spacecraft was launched in March 2004, with Philae inside, by the European Space Agency. Since then it travelled more than 6.5 billion km to catch up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.


When the landing took place, Rosetta, Philae and the comet were nearly 505 million km from Earth, between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter (for context, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun is 150 million km). At this distance, it takes 28 minutes for the speed-of-light radio communications to reach Earth from Rosetta and Philae.

This mission has been described as one of the most complicated and ambitious ever attempted.

Wow. Absolutely fascinating.

[n david]

Originally Posted by Abiding Now

And where was NASA? Gutted by our illustrious leaders.

America second only to everyone else.

NASA has been in decline for a couple decades. This administration gutted it the most, though. It's sad that the once-proud space program has lost its luster.

I would have thought by now we would have been back to the moon at least once (building a colony there), and further along in space exploration in general.

[Arphaxad]

Originally Posted by Abiding Now

And where was NASA? Gutted by our illustrious leaders.

America second only to everyone else.

Yeah, V-GER 1&2, only things to go beyond the solar system, Apollo 11,1st humans on another world. America second to none!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Arphaxad]

Lot's of stuff might come out with studying something from the Orrt cloud, like if life on earth is actually extraterrestrial.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Originally Posted by n david

NASA has been in decline for a couple decades. This administration gutted it the most, though. It's sad that the once-proud space program has lost its luster.

I would have thought by now we would have been back to the moon at least once (building a colony there), and further along in space exploration in general.

There were many Republicans calling for the complete privatization of NASA.

It appears that is one of the few issues where they were able to come to some kind of compromise.