Earth swing-by: Rosetta operations update

Rosetta, ESA's comet-chasing spacecraft, is due to swing-by Earth tomorrow, 13 November, making closest approach at 21:57 CET. The next three days promise to be intensely busy at ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. On 12 November, ESApod spoke with Andrea Accomazzo, the Spacecraft Operations Manager, who provided an update on the team work going on at ESOC and the support being provided by ESA's New Norcia ESTRACK ground station and by NASA's deep-space network. At 19:00 CET (18:00 UTC) tonight, Rosetta will be 920 000 km from the Earth, approaching at 9.4 km/second relative to our planet.