On 6 August, after a decade-long journey through space, ESA’s Rosetta will become the first spacecraft in history to rendezvous with a comet. Members of the media are invited to join ESA at its European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to mark this momentous occasion.

The fifth and last Automated Transfer Vehicle is scheduled to lift off during the night of 24 July (25 July 01:43 GMT, 25 July 03:43 CEST, 24 July 22:43 local time) from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on an Ariane 5ES rocket. It will dock with the International Space Station on 12 August and undock up to six months later for reentry into the atmosphere, bringing the programme to a fiery end.

ESA will be present over the week of 14–20 July in the dedicated Space Zone in Hall 3 of the Farnborough airshow’s international aerospace exhibition. Media and the public can learn about the activities of ESA in the different domains of space, try hands-on demonstrations and learn from experts about the latest developments.

The first set of high-resolution data on Earth’s magnetic field from ESA’s Swarm mission will be unveiled at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on 19 June. Media representatives are invited to the event to find out more.