The European Space Agency is about to launch the first ever spacecraft designed to orbit a comet and land on its surface. After a mission postponement delay of one year, the Rosetta probe has now finally been attached to an Ariane 5 rocket and is on the launchpad, ready for lift-off. Scientists, engineers and journalists have gathered at the French Guyana launch site for what promises to be an historical moment in European space exploration.

10:00:40 START Aroll
The European Space Agency is about to launch the first ever spacecraft designed to orbit a comet and land on its surface.
10:00:48
After a mission postponement delay of one year, the Rosetta probe hais now finally been attached to an Ariane 5 rocket and is on the launchpad, ready for takelift-off. Scientists, engineers and journalists have gathered at the French Guyana launch site for what promises to be an historical moment in European space explorationÉ
10:01:06
Named after the ancient stone used to decipher the hieroglyphs, the Rosetta space probe will perform an in-situ study of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will carry a complete laboratory almost 700 million kilometres from the Earth, where it will unravel the mysteries frozen deep within the cometÕs icy core.
10:01:25
This will be the third second time that ESA has visited a comet. In 1986 and 1992 the Giotto probe flew past two different comets at close-range, providing scientists with the...