Non-Stop Rosetta Coverage on NOW! ESA TV will be on non-stop from now until the Philae lander has transmitted photos back from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. There are several steps to accomplish. Rosetta will release Philae at 3:35 a.m. EST (0835 GMT). Rosetta will receive status from Philae at 5:53 a.m. EST (1053 GMT). ESA will know if the landing was successful by 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT), tomorrow November 12.
ESA, the European Space Agency, is about to launch two of its Galileo Satellites. They will provide Europe with global positioning capability that will be interoperable with The United States GPS system.
This launch will take Galileo 5 and Galileo 6 into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana. Launch is at 12:27:11 UTC/14:27:11 CEST. That will be 8:27 a.m. EST in The United States.
As a strong fan and advocate for space exploration, it's always interesting to discover programs you didn't know existed. It's also great to be reminded of ones that, after years of operation, are finally reaching their intended target.
Such is the case with the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. It's intention is to orbit a comet while dormant. That is, when it's a ball of rock and ice heading in towards rounding the sun. It's as it gets closer that the trapped ice steams off and you get the characteristic tail.
The craft will release a lander, which will land on the surface and do some very up close observations!