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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6630

NASA TV Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdown
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 28, 2016

NASA Television and the agency's website will air the conclusion of ESA's (European Space Agency's) Rosetta mission from 3:15 to 5 a.m PDT (6:15
to 8 a.m. EDT) Friday, Sept. 30, with NASA commentary, interviews and
analysis of the successful mission. The Rosetta mission will end with
the controlled descent of the spacecraft onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
at around 4:20 a.m. PDT (7:20 a.m. EDT).

Rosetta was launched in 2004 carrying 11 science instruments, with several contributions from NASA including: the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO); the Alice spectrograph; the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES);
and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) electronics package for
the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion Neutral Analysis (ROSINA). NASA's Deep Space Network supports ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

The spacecraft arrived at its destination comet on Aug. 6, 2014, becoming
the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet and escort it
as it orbits the sun. About two months later, the small Philae lander
deployed from Rosetta touched down on the comet and bounced several times before alighting on the surface. Philae obtained the first images ever
taken from the surface of a comet, and sent back valuable scientific data
for several days. ESA is ending the mission because the spacecraft's ever-increasing
distance from the sun has resulted in significantly reduced solar power
to operate the spacecraft and its instruments.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from
the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to witness up close how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn
more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in the formation of planets.

In addition to NASA's contribution, Rosetta's Philae lander was provided
by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute
for Solar System Research, French National Space Agency, and Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages
the U.S. contributions to the Rosetta mission for the agency's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO and hosts its principal investigator, Mark Hofstadter. The Southwest Research Institute developed Rosetta's IES and Alice instruments and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch for IES and Alan Stern for the Alice instrument.

NASA TV streaming video, downlink and updated scheduling information is
at:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

The landing coverage will also be streamed live at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

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