Philae

The craft had been programmed for a "controlled impact", at a human walking pace of about 90cm per second.

After dispatching the final data to Earth, Rosetta's signal will simply vanish from ground control screens .

Europe's trailblazing deep-space comet exploration for clues to the origins of the Solar System ends Friday with the Rosetta orbiter joining robot lab Philae on the iceball's dusty surface for eternity.

In the final hours of its controlled descent on September 30, Rosetta will be able to take close-up pictures of the comet.

US space agency NASA is poised on Thursday to launch its groundbreaking first mission to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples that could shed light on the dawn of the solar system.

The agency released a photo of the washing machine-sized robot lab on the comet's rough surface.

Europe's Rosetta spacecraft has finally spotted its tiny lander Philae, thought to be lost forever, stuck in a ditch on the surface of a comet hurtling through space, ground controllers said Monday.

Ground controllers bid a final farewell today to robot lab Philae, cutting communications after a year-long silence with the tiny probe hurtling through space on the surface of a comet.

Big launches, a near-riot, and much more news took place this week, and we've got a roundup of everything that matters.

"The mission is coming to an end as a result of the spacecraft's ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth", said a statement by the ESA.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) said on Friday it suspects Philae is now covered in dust and too cold to operate.

Ground controllers said today they would stop sending commands to comet probe Philae, announcing it was "time to say goodbye" to the tiny lab resting after a captivating science mission.

"When finally we 'kill' Philae, it will be like 'who killed Bambi'," ESA senior science adviser Mark McCaughrean said.

A last-chance manoeuvre was attempted Sunday to shift the tiny lander into a sunnier angle for its battery-replenishing solar panels.

A year ago on Thursday, the world held its collective breath as a European spacecraft dropped a tiny robot lab onto the surface of a comet hurtling towards the Sun.

The craft had been programmed for a "controlled impact", at a human walking pace of about 90cm per second.

After dispatching the final data to Earth, Rosetta's signal will simply vanish from ground control screens .

Europe's trailblazing deep-space comet exploration for clues to the origins of the Solar System ends Friday with the Rosetta orbiter joining robot lab Philae on the iceball's dusty surface for eternity.

In the final hours of its controlled descent on September 30, Rosetta will be able to take close-up pictures of the comet.

US space agency NASA is poised on Thursday to launch its groundbreaking first mission to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples that could shed light on the dawn of the solar system.

The agency released a photo of the washing machine-sized robot lab on the comet's rough surface.

Europe's Rosetta spacecraft has finally spotted its tiny lander Philae, thought to be lost forever, stuck in a ditch on the surface of a comet hurtling through space, ground controllers said Monday.

Ground controllers bid a final farewell today to robot lab Philae, cutting communications after a year-long silence with the tiny probe hurtling through space on the surface of a comet.

Big launches, a near-riot, and much more news took place this week, and we've got a roundup of everything that matters.

"The mission is coming to an end as a result of the spacecraft's ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth", said a statement by the ESA.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) said on Friday it suspects Philae is now covered in dust and too cold to operate.

Ground controllers said today they would stop sending commands to comet probe Philae, announcing it was "time to say goodbye" to the tiny lab resting after a captivating science mission.

"When finally we 'kill' Philae, it will be like 'who killed Bambi'," ESA senior science adviser Mark McCaughrean said.

A last-chance manoeuvre was attempted Sunday to shift the tiny lander into a sunnier angle for its battery-replenishing solar panels.

A year ago on Thursday, the world held its collective breath as a European spacecraft dropped a tiny robot lab onto the surface of a comet hurtling towards the Sun.