ESA - ESA Spacecraft Operations - Rosetta in critical Mars swingby

Background

About us Profile: The Right Stuff

SSA programme

Space Situational Awareness

Multimedia (click)

Image gallery Video gallery Animation gallery

Ground Systems Engineering

Ground Systems team at ESOC

Mission families

Solar & planetary Astronomy & Fundamental Physics Earth Observation Human Spaceflight Technology Demonstration Past missions ESA mission history - Find a mission: A...Z

Mission control centres

ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC)Columbus Control Centre (Col-CC)

Worldwide ground station network

ESTRACK tracking stations ESTRACK Control Centre - Find a station: A...Z

OPS Community

Advanced Mission Concepts & Technologies Office HSO Exchange Knowledge Management ESA Ground Operation System (EGOS)

Services

Publications ESA-sponsored conferences Help Subscribe

Rosetta in critical Mars swingby

Red Planet gives gravity assist for ESA's comet-chasing Rosetta mission.

Vodcast

Play now | Download

On 25 February, Rosetta will swing by Mars in the second of four critical gravity assists in its ten-year voyage to comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The upcoming manoeuvre, with Rosetta skimming Mars at 250 kilometres, is a delicate operation and a key milestone, and mission controllers and flight dynamics specialists at ESA's Space Operations Centre are in intense preparations for the early-morning event. The spacecraft will also conduct observations of Mars, primarily to help calibrate the instruments but also to gather data, which will complement those gathered by ESA's Mars Express, in a 'mini' coordinated observation campaign.

Send this page to a friend

Hunting for comets

Related ESApod

Mars swing-by success

Rosetta Mars swing-by

ESApod

Required software

Windows Media Player

QuickTime