Rosetta to sleep through loneliest leg of comet mission
Friday, June 3, 2011 - 12:30
in Astronomy & Space
On June 8, 2011, mission controllers will have the first opportunity to switch the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet-hunter into deep-space hibernation for 31 months. During this loneliest leg of its decade-long mission, Rosetta will loop ever closer toward comet 67-P, soaring to almost one billion kilometers from Earth.