Rosetta Earth flyby observations have begun

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2007/11/08 12:30 CST

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Rosetta is now homing in on its November 13 Earth flyby. It's gone to Mars and back on its way to a comet. ESA posted a timeline of the key events on the encounter today, including the pleasant detail that at 08:00 UTC on November 14, if everything goes well, they should have new images on their website! Cool. I'll be watching.

Here are the other events on the timeline (all times are Earth Received Time, which, for an Earth flyby, isn't far off of Spacecraft Event Time). If you want a place to find out what's happening with the mission as the flyby progresses, check out ESA's Rosetta Blog, which is providing updates direct from the control room at the European Space Operations Centre.

Time (UTC)	Event
November 7
00:00	Science observations begin with measurements of Earth's magnetosphere to be continued until November 20)
November 13
00:00	Turn spacecraft toward Earth Rosetta will approach Earth from its night side.)
20:57	Closest approach to Earth
21:02	Turn spacecraft toward the Moon
22:00	Begin Moon imaging and science observations to be continued until November 20)
November 14
00:45	Begin data downli There will be one downlink slot every day until November 22)
08:00	Images on ESA website
10:02	End of Moon pointing slot Fields and particles observations can continue even when the spacecraft is not pointed at Earth or the Moon.)
November 15
	Images of Earth-Moon system from distance