Rosetta heard from after flyby

Emily Lakdawalla

Written by Emily Lakdawalla
September 5, 2008

Rosetta contacted Earth on schedule following its flyby of asteroid (2867) Steins at 18:38 UTC today, according to a story on the ESA website. Data downlink hasn't started yet -- the spacecraft is still gathering data as it flies away -- but the on-time contact indicates that Rosetta successfully performed the various maneuvers it was commanded to, so there is every reason to hope that the science timeline was executed as planned.

Yay!

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