<h2>ROSETTA Mission Overview </h2>

The ROSETTA mission is an interplanetary mission whose main
objectives are the rendezvous and in-situ measurements of the comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, scheduled for 2014/2015. The spacecraft
carries a Rosetta Lander, named Philae, to the nucleus and deploys it
onto its surface.
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On its long way to the comet nucleus after a Launch by Ariane 5 P1+
in March 2004, the ROSETTA spacecraft orbits the Sun for one year
until it returns to Earth for the first swing-by. The planet Mars is
reached in February 2007, about 3 years after launch. In November
2007 a second Earth swing-by takes place and a third one in November
2009. Two asteroid flybys (2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia) are performed
on the way to the comet. These two asteroids were selected at the
Science Working Team meeting on 11th March 2004 among all the
available candidate asteroids, depending on the scientific interest
and the propellant required for the correction manoeuvre. Around the
aphelion of its orbit, which is 5.3 AU from the Sun, the spacecraft
is in a spinning hibernation mode for about 2.5 years.
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The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is reached about 10.5 years after
launch, in May 2014. After a comet mapping phase the Surface Science
Package, carried piggyback on the spacecraft are released for landing
on the comet's surface for in situ measurements. The ROSETTA mission
then makes a detailed study of the comet and its environment until a
Sun distance of 2 AU is reached again after comet perihelion, at the
end of the year 2015.
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<b>Please note:</b>
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The ROSETTA spacecraft was originally designed for a mission to the
comet 46 P/Wirtanen to be launched in January 2003. Due to a delay of
the launch a new comet (67P/Churyumow-Gerasimenko) had been selected
by the Science Working Team on 3rd-4th April 2003 [RO-SWT-2004APR04].
The compliance of the design was checked and where necessary adapted
for this new mission. Therefore in the following all the details and
characteristics for this new mission are used.
ission Phases Overview
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This section gives an overview of the major mission phases and main
events in scheduled tables. A description of the individual phases is
given in the following section. More detailed information can be
found in the Rosetta Mission Calendar [RO-ESC-PL-5026], the
Consolidated Report on Mission Analysis [RO-ESC-RP-5500] and the RSOC
Design Specification [RO-EST-PL-2010]
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<b>Detailed Mission Phase Schedule</b> is available 
<a href="http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=PSA&page=rosetta" 
TARGET=_BLANK>here</a>.
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