Rosetta is a space probe aiming to rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This page records a detailed timeline of this mission.
Timeline
2004
February
- February 26
- Scheduled launch was stopped 20 minutes and 40 seconds before scheduled lift off and was delayed one day due to heavy winds in the upper atmosphere.
- February 27
- Before rescheduled launch, a piece of detached foam was discovered, which prompted a round of technical inspections (image of defect (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/launcher/158_post_lrg.jpg) from ESA). Launch was rescheduled to very early March.
March
- March 2
- ESA's Rosetta mission is successfully launched at 07:17 GMT (08:17 Central European Time).
Missing imageKOU01-182614-pih_L.jpg Launch of Rosetta
- March 3
- "S-Band" communication commenced with Rosetta on this day. Both low- and high-gain antenna configurations worked successfully. Also, for the first time, all reaction wheels were in operation. They are compensating for large disturbances due to outgassing from the space craft, which is expected to last for a few days in the vacuum of space.
- March 4
- The power subsystem of Rosetta was commissioned and performed as expected.
- March 5
- The "X-Band" communication was commissioned successfully for Rosetta.
- March 10
- The first three instruments (Cosima, Consert and Osiris) were activated and their initial commissioning activities successfully completed in the last three days. Also, the Consert antenna was deployed.
- March 11
- The Rosetta Science Working Team announces that the accuracy of the launch made it possible to select two asteroids as targets for a rendezvous fly-by of the probe. "Comets and asteroids are the building blocks of our Earth and the other planets in the Solar System. Rosetta will conduct the most thorough analysis so far of three of these objects," said Prof. David Southwood, Director of ESA’s Science Programme in a press release.
- March 17
- Over the last five days, starting on March 12, the commissioning of the lander was successfully completed. Only one step was rescheduled due to the early release of the launch locks during the first mission day.
- March 19
- The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments were successfully commissioned during the previous two days.
- A redundant power supply seem to have failed during a repeat check of the RPC instruments. Further investigations are under way.
- The spacecraft booms carrying the RPC MIP (Mutual Impedance Probe) and LAP (Langmuir Probe) instruments were successfully deployed using the primary systems.
- March 26
- Three instruments successfully checked out during commissioning: ROSINA, ALICE, and VIRTIS. Each activity took two days and was well within or ahead of schedule.
- The High Gain Antenna (HGA) emission pattern was calibrated by performing spiral maneuvers. The gain was measured by the earth-side radio station at New Norcia.
- March 30
- The RSI (Radio Science Instrument) completed five days of commissioning.
April
- April 3
- After three passes of MIRO commissioning through more spiral maneuvers, scanning the planet Venus, this instrument checks out well.
- April 4
- The Rosetta spacecraft was pointed into its attitude towards Earth that is planned for the remainder of the year. Periodically, slight adjustments are planned to avoid to have sunlight hit Rosetta head-on. (Also called "+X" axis).
- The GIADA instrument was activated and commissioned.
- April 9
- The last instrument on board Rosetta (MIDAS) was turned on during April 4 and 5 days of commissioning concluded. At this point all science and engineering subsystems have been activated at least once.
- Use of the radio station at New Norcia was reduced from 11 hours to 7 hours, so that the Mars Express mission can use more communication time slots.
- April 15
- Five days of checkout procedures for the lander concluded successfully. This second lander activity was focussing on the lander's payload.
- The ALICE instrument was activated again and high voltage operations were executed.
- All other activities were performed as planned, including an adjustment of the internal heater system due to the decreasing distance to the Sun.
- April 17
- Rosetta commissioning hit a snag, today. A pyro did not fire, that was designed to allow the opening of the ALICE detector.
- April 21
- After some investigation, a backup pyro was successfully fired to release the ALICE detector door.
- April 25
- During a test sequence using an Earth pointing attitude, the thruster temperature (heated by the sun) caused an unplanned "slew" to occur. This mechanism is used to prevent the thrusters to overheat. Due to this maneuver, a planned imaging activity of the Earth-Moon system was cancelled, but all other commissioning activities were successfully completed.
May
- May 1
- The first scientific observations were performed at this date. The instruments were pointed towards comet currently close to the sun (discovered by LINEAR.)
- May 6
- In preparation for the first deep space maneuver of Rosetta a total of 12 pyro valves were fired, and the pressure in the reaction control system started to build up as expected.
- May 10
- The most critical deep space maneuver was successfully executed. The four thrusters on board of Rosetta were fired for about 3.5 hours, and a velocity change (delta v) of 152.8 metre per second was imparted to the spacecraft.
- May 16
- A planned "touch-up" deep space maneuver was successfully executed. A burn of just under 17 minutes was performed with high accuracy. Then Rosetta pointed its instruments again towards Comet LINEAR for observation.
- May 28
-
Missing imageRosetta_Linear_small.jpg Comet LINEAR
June
- June 7
- Rosetta switched into "Cruise Mode" after completing all steps for commissioning the instruments.
July
- July 25
- A week of increased activities during the "Cruise 1" phase included the commissioning of the two navigation cameras by taking pictures of the Earth and the Moon.
2005
March
- March 4
- The first planned flyby of Earth was executed successfully. ESA asks amateur astronomers that took pictures of the spacecraft to submit them. Also, tests with the Moon as target standing in for a comet or asteroid, produced pictures and other data as expected.
- March 24
- Rosetta transitioned back into "cruise mode".
April
- April 15
- A test of the Near Sun Hibernation Mode (NSHM) was successfully concluded. It started on April 11 and tested a special low activity mode of Rosetta. In this state the gyroscopes and reaction wheels are inactive, and the craft is using the star tracker and the thrusters to control its attitude, only.
July
See also
