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.       Last update: 9 November 2007  •  Hunting for comets (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/index.html) Related ESApod  •  Mars swing-by success (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMVE2CE8YE_0.html)  •  Rosetta Mars swing-by (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMQW1CE8YE_0.html)  •  - (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)