Rosetta: rendezvous with an asteroid   --     4 September 2008   ESA's Rosetta will rendezvous with Steins, an unusual E-class asteroid that may provide clues to the solar system's early evolution. Vodcast Play now | Download   Asteroid Steins belongs to the rare, largely unknown intermediate E-class, very bright and probably with a much-weathered surface. Steins' orbit was only known from ground observations, so Rosetta is conducting Europe's first-ever optical tracking campaign, providing highly accurate position data to Flight Dynamics specialists who are planning a series of trajectory corrections for an accurate fly-by. For over a year, Rosetta scientists and leading asteroid experts have been planning this encounter, and all the probe's science instruments will be active at some point in the fly-by. Reception of the first images is expected at the European Space Operations Centre some two hours after the encounter on 5 September 2008.      •  Rosetta Blog (http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/5/)  •  ESA's comet chaser (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/index.html)  •  Space Operations & Situational Awareness (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/index.html) For the media  •  Media Press Kit (http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMJ09374OD_1_spk.html)  •  Rosetta factsheet (pdf) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/rosetta/Rosetta_fact_sheetv3.pdf)  •  - (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESApod/index.html)  •  (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=117835479 &s=143441)  •  (http://podcasts.yahoo.com/series?s=4bd3e42bd1a996c47ff89731a8832060)  •  ESApod (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ESApod)  •  (http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Science/Astronomy/ESA-Podcast/16859)  •  (http://www.podcast.net/show/45773)  •  (http://www.podnova.com/index_podnova_station.srf?url=http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/esc/esapod.xml)  •  (http://odeo.com/channel/105568/view) Required software  •   Windows Media Player (http://www.microsoft.com)  •   QuickTime (http://www.apple.com)