Rosetta meets Comet

Sometimes we forget to take a step back and appreciate some of the amazing technology that is going on. Ten years ago the European Space Agency launched a spacecraft, Rosetta, to intercept a comet.

Ten years ago.

To meet up with the comet, Rosetta needed to loop around the sun four times, getting gravity assist from multiple planets (Mars once and Earth three times).

I can’t embed this video, but check it out.

Think of the complexity involved in getting this right. Yet here we are, ten years later, and Rosetta just completed maneuvers to place it in orbit around the comet.

That is just flat out amazing.