Rosetta’s final path
Animation of Rosetta’s final trajectory in the last 10 days of its mission at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. <br /> <br />On 24 September 2016, Rosetta will leave a close flyover orbit and transfer into the start of a 16 x 23 km orbit that will be used to prepare and line up for the final descent. In the evening of 29 September (20:50 GMT) Rosetta will manoeuvre onto a collision course with the comet, beginning the descent from an altitude of 19 km. The spacecraft will fall freely, without further manoeuvres, collecting scientific data during the descent. <br /> <br />The trajectory shown in this animation is created from real data provided in the last month, but may not necessarily follow the exact distance/time details because of natural deviations in the trajectory associated with the comet’s gravity and outgassing. <br /> <br />Find out more about Rosetta at: <br />http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta <br />and <br />http://www.esa.int/rosetta