Video: Lander manager provides update on Philae status

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.

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 Philae lander radioed home Thursday, sending the first picture from the surface of a comet hours after a dramatic descent that apparently culminated in bouncing hundreds of meters across the distant world before coming to rest.