Rosetta’s Earth ‘twin’ switched off

Just as the real Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission on the comet a week ago today, so this week Rosetta's 'twin', an engineering qualification model here on Earth, was also switched off.

The replica Rosetta had been used in the past decade to test and validate software and procedures before being uploaded to space. Switch-off was done by Rosetta Spacecraft Operations Manager Sylvain Lodiot on 6 Oct 2016, at ESOC.

This Flickr set records the occasion: http://ift.tt/2dA3lmy

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NASA TV Coverage Set for Orbital ATK Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is scheduled to launch its sixth mission to the International Space Station at 9:13 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 13. Live launch coverage will begin at 8:15 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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Rosetta impact site named Sais

Rosetta's last image, taken 20 m from the surface of the comet. ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

In case you missed it during our live coverage on Friday, Rosetta's impact site has been named Sais.

Mission Manager Patrick Martin announced the name of the impact site after contact with the comet's surface was confirmed and the mission declared complete.

He said: “The Rosetta Stone was originally located in Sais, and we shall name the impact point as such so we can finally say that Rosetta has come home to Sais.”

The mission was named after the Rosetta Stone, itself so named because it was found in a town called Rashid (Rosetta), having thought to have been moved there from a temple in a town called Sais.

 

Rosetta's last image of the comet surface is highlighted today as Space Science Image of the Week.

 

 

 

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Alice’s last spectra

We were happy to spot this tweet from Rosetta's Alice instrument Principal Investigator Alan Stern over the weekend, showing the final spectrograph image obtained by the instrument moments before Rosetta impacted on to the surface of the comet on Friday:

Heading bk from Germany & the end of Rosetta's flight mission. Our Alice UV spectrograph's final image: made minutes b4 touchdown. #Proud http://pic.twitter.com/dLtvhtrKRl

— AlanStern (@AlanStern) October 1, 2016

We exchanged a brief email with Alan yesterday, who confirmed: "The spectrum shows the reflectance of the surface at close range with ~3m resolution — which is unprecedented for ultraviolet studies of comets."

Congratulations Alice!

We're looking forward to hearing more from the various instrument teams in due course as to what exciting measurements they achieved in the final hours of the mission.

 

 

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Mission Complete

Mission complete: Rosetta’s journey ends in daring descent to comet

ESA’s historic Rosetta mission has concluded as planned, with the controlled impact onto the comet it had been investigating for more than two years.

Read the press release on the ESA website.

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NASA Awards Audit Services Contracts

NASA has awarded contracts to six companies to provide agencywide contract auditing support services, previously performed by the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

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NASA Highlights Science on Next Commercial Resupply Mission to International Space Station

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct 5, to discuss select science investigations launching on the next Orbital ATK commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station.

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NASA, France to Collaborate on Aircraft Noise Research

During bilateral meetings in Daejeon, South Korea, NASA and France’s Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales (ONERA) signed an agreement Tuesday to collaborate on research that focuses on mitigating the effects of civil air transportation noise.

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NASA TV to Broadcast Hispanic Heritage Event, Aspira con NASA / Aspire with NASA

NASA will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the agency’s headquarters in Washington Tuesday, Oct. 4, with stories of aspiration, inspiration and exploration. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website at 10 a.m. EDT.

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Loss of signal confirmation

Spacecraft Operations Manager Sylvain Lodiot confirms loss of signal (LOS) and end of Rosetta operations at 13:19 CEST, 30 September 2016, via the voice loop in the Main Control Room at ESA's space operations centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

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Comet landing descent image – 51 m

This is Rosetta's last image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken shortly before impact, only 51 m above the surface.

Close-up view of the surface of Comet 67P/C-G imaged with the OSIRIS wide-angle camera, shortly before Rosetta's final impact on the comet. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The image was taken with the OSIRIS wide-angle camera on 30 September 2016. The image scale is about 5 mm/pixel and the image measures about 2.4 m across.

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