Mission scientist reacts to historic first images from the surface of a comet

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission stars with Game of Thrones actor Aidan Gillan and actress Aisling Franciosi in a short film released recently to promote the spacecraft’s exploration of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Comet scientists planned to send up new orders to Europe’s Philae lander Thursday to kick off a second day of research after the probe endured a jumpy touchdown on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.