On Sept. 2, 2016, the European Space Agency finally located Philae, its long-lost comet lander.
Philae is a spacecraft about the size of a washing machine, and it was dropped off at Comet 67P by another spacecraft named Rosetta in November of 2014. But when its landing harpoons failed to deploy, it bounced all over the comet before tumbling into a shady place where its solar panels couldn't collect enough light.
Philae did transmit some data to Rosetta while using the last of its batteries after the landing, and it occasionally made contact for months after the crash. Rosetta kept looking for Philae by flying around Comet 67P and taking photos. It took Rosetta almost two years to find Philae.
A photo taken on Sept. 2, 2016 showed little Philae lying on its side in a dark, rocky crevice. Locating Philae's grave finally gave the European Space Agency some closure less than a month before Rosetta's mission came to an end with another epic crash landing on Comet 67P.
Philae is a spacecraft about the size of a washing machine, and it was dropped off at Comet 67P by another spacecraft named Rosetta in November of 2014. But when its landing harpoons failed to deploy, it bounced all over the comet before tumbling into a shady place where its solar panels couldn't collect enough light.
Philae did transmit some data to Rosetta while using the last of its batteries after the landing, and it occasionally made contact for months after the crash. Rosetta kept looking for Philae by flying around Comet 67P and taking photos. It took Rosetta almost two years to find Philae.
A photo taken on Sept. 2, 2016 showed little Philae lying on its side in a dark, rocky crevice. Locating Philae's grave finally gave the European Space Agency some closure less than a month before Rosetta's mission came to an end with another epic crash landing on Comet 67P.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03In 2016, the European Space Agency
00:06finally located Philae, its long-lost comet lander.
00:09Philae is a spacecraft about the size of a washing machine
00:12and it was dropped off at comet 67P by another spacecraft
00:15named Rosetta in November of 2014.
00:18But when its landing harpoons failed to deploy, it bounced
00:21all over the comet before tumbling into a shady place
00:24where its solar panels couldn't collect enough light.
00:27Philae did transmit some data to Rosetta while using the last
00:30of its batteries after the landing and it occasionally made
00:33contact for months after the crash. Rosetta kept looking
00:36for Philae by flying around comet 67P and taking photos.
00:39It took Rosetta almost two years to find Philae.
00:42A photo taken on September 2, 2016 showed
00:45little Philae lying on its side in a dark, rocky crevice.
00:48Locating Philae's grave finally gave the European Space
00:51Agency some closure less than a month before Rosetta's mission
00:54came to an end with another epic crash landing on comet 67P.
00:57And that's what happened on this day in space.
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