Incredible news! My lander Philae is awake! http://t.co/VtzAQHx4zT pic.twitter.com/SZqnsnNpUZ
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) June 14, 2015
On Saturday, Philae, the European Space Agency’s comet lander communicated with its team on Earth for the first time since going into hibernation in November of last year.
Philae’s team at the ESA believes that the lander may have been awake for a period of time before it was able to make contact.
Following its seven-month sleep, the lander spoke with its mothership, Rosetta, for 85 seconds, prompting an exchange on Twitter that quickly went viral.
Hello @Philae2014! You’ve had a long sleep, about 7 months!
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) June 14, 2015
.@Philae2014 Need to check you’re fit, healthy and warm enough first @philae2014! Take it easy for now :)
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) June 14, 2015
Philae is the product of an 11-year space project. Philae’s launcher Rosetta, an unmanned space probe, left Earth in 2004.
Rosetta transmitted its first images from space back to Earth in 2010, and then went into hibernation for nearly three years, according to the Associated Press.
In August of 2014, Rosetta came across the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, and the ESA began the process of sending Philae to touch down on that comet.According to CNN, Philae’s anchoring mechanism failed during landing. When Philae settled in a shady spot atop the comet, the comet lander fell asleep after 60 hours of operation drained its solar batteries.
Rosetta had been looking for it ever since.
Philae’s project manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec said Sunday in a press release that the team has been able to assess that Philae is in good condition.
“Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available. The lander is ready for operations,” Ulamec said.
The post European comet lander speaks after seven-month hibernation appeared first on PBS NewsHour.