This Spacecraft Fairytale Will Make Anyone Excited About Outer Space

This Spacecraft Fairytale Will Make Anyone Excited About Outer Space

Rosetta is travelling to unknown lands. Her voyage has gone on nearly a decade. With her lander Philae, she’s mankind’s most intrepid explorer, headed for a mysterious destination called Churyumov — Gerasimenko. It’s not a fictitious fairytale. It’s science.

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta orbiter, launched in 2004, will be the first man-made object to land on a comet. It’s been hibernating as it makes its way toward an August 2014 landing on 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko. But on January 20th, the ESA will wake Rosetta up to begin taking photos and measurements as it flies by 67P and prepares for landing.

The great thing about this video is that it doesn’t dumb anything down. The Rosetta story is super fascinating and plenty whimsical all on its own, and this ESA video makes it accessible for anyone to understand. And there’s definitely a fairytale feeling about a hero and sidekick, way out there in space, exploring the vast unknownness beyond our little planet. Wake up, Rosetta, you’re almost there. [H/T Nikita M]


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