Video: Flight director updates status of comet lander

The Rosetta spacecraft neared its comet Saturday, targeting a close flyby within four miles of the tiny world’s jagged nucleus to gain new up-close views of the comet and taste the growing vaporous cloud surrounding it.

The sharp-eyed science camera on Europe’s Rosetta comet orbiter caught a view of the probe’s fuzzy shadow when controllers guided the spacecraft just a few miles over its subject’s nucleus last month.

Europe’s Philae spacecraft is set to go for landing on a comet, a never-before-tried maneuver that includes a perilous seven-hour descent and an uncontrolled touchdown.