Video: Flight director updates status of comet lander

Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations, describes the moment of relief when engineers confirmed the Philae comet lander separated from its Rosetta mothership. But anxiety is building over touchdown after telemetry data raised questions about the status of an important cold gas thruster designed to keep the lander from bouncing off the comet.

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft — six months into its mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — made its closest flyby of the comet’s boulder-strewn nucleus Saturday, capturing photos and measurements to help scientists unravel how the duck-shaped body is evolving on its path around the sun.

Images recorded by Rosetta’s navigation camera appear to show the lander, its shadow and the dust cloud kicked up by its first touchdown.