Europe’s Rosetta Spacecraft Readied For Early 2004 Liftoff
By Staff Writer | December 9, 2003
The European Space Agency‘s Rosetta space probe has undergone checkout and modification at Arianespace‘s spaceport in French Guiana in preparation for its new launch date on a mission to catch a comet.
Rosetta was assigned a new comet target – 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – after its original January 2002 launch on Ariane 5 was postponed. Liftoff now is targeted for February, with the spacecraft scheduled to encounter Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014.