Visit my website at [ Ссылка ] - using gravity slingshots from Earth and Mars to reach its final destination, Rosetta traces a wandering path. The spacecraft has already completed three flybys of Earth: on March 4, 2005, November 13, 2007 and November 13, 2009 - as well as a flyby of Mars, on February 25, 2007.

If that was not enough, Rosetta has also had two asteroid encounters: 2867 Steins, on September 5, 2008 and 21 Lutetia, on July 10, 2010. Rosetta is currently in hibernation mode until January 20, 2014.

The space probe will rendezvous with its final destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May of 2014 and the Philae probe will be deployed to the comet surface later, in November. Rosetta will follow the comet as it makes its closest approach to the Sun on August 13, 2015 and will continue on with the comet as it moves back towards the outer Solar System.

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Credits: ESA

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