A seven-hour marathon to reach a wandering comet

Space · Published 8 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Watch the high-stakes real-time monitoring of one of the European Space Agency's longest thruster burns as Rosetta prepares for its historic encounter with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

On May 21, the ESA spacecraft Rosetta executed a critical maneuver 500 million kilometres from its target. This first of three main thruster burns lasted over seven hours and consumed 218 kilogrammes of fuel to decelerate the craft for an early August orbit.

The video provides a look inside the Darmstadt control room, highlighting the team's coordination and the preparation of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium. These instruments are specifically gearing up for the deployment of the Philae lander onto the comet's surface.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• The high-stakes awakening of a comet hunter in deep space
• The race to map a comet before landing on its surface
• How Rosetta navigated the unpredictable environment of Comet 67P
• The final descent of the Rosetta mission to comet 67P
• Slowing down to a crawl: The precision of comet navigation
• How astronaut Kathy Thornton helped save the Hubble Space Telescope from total failure
• A year of scouting: how one satellite mapped the lunar surface
• How four decades of data are mapping a path to Mars
• NASA’s Lucy spacecraft performs a daring, low-altitude swing dance around Earth
• A new era of cargo delivery begins for the space station
• Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to explore Jupiter's mysterious Trojan asteroids?
• How NASA is teaching drones to share the sky safely

More in Space agencies · More in Space · Latest · A–Z · All topics