Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
Some members of the Philae lander team at the DLR Lander Control Center in Cologne.
+++ Update: Thank you for all the great pictures and wishes you sent to Philae. You can find all photos in our flickr-Gallery. We also produced a video from these pictures: +++
12 November 2014 would have been an otherwise unremarkable day on Earth were it not for the historic event that took place – for the first time ever, humankind landed on the surface of a comet. Well actually, it was the robot lander Philae who touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 17:09 CET. On 27 July 2016, the Electrical Support System (ESS) on Rosetta, which is used to communicate with Philae, will be switched off to save energy before September 30, the day the Rosetta mission will come to an end.
The robot lander Philae made it into history books: he didn’t just land on a comet, he also told the world about it as he did it – another first! He reported the landing, step by step, in real time, making everyone a part of his mission. His landing tweet "Touchdown! My new address: 67P" was retweeted more than 36,000 times, and he has 448,000 followers on Twitter (@Philae2014). We know that the little robot has a place in the hearts of many – to this day, his twitter account is filled with messages of hope and concern for his well-being.
We invite you all to help us and our partners say goodbye to Philae. But how? read more