Rosetta spacecraft gets ready to blast off
News story originally written on January 15, 2004
The European Space Agency is getting ready to launch a space mission. The
mission is called Rosetta. Rosetta will fly to a comet and study it. Part
of the spacecraft will land on the comet. Rosetta will blast off on February 26,
2004.
Rosetta was supposed to blast
off a year ago, but there were problems with
its rocket. Those problems have been fixed, so Rosetta is ready to go now.
Rosetta will study a comet named Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The comet is named after two Russian scientists who discovered it.
Rosetta has a long trip ahead of it. It will take Rosetta ten years to get
to the comet! Rosetta
will fly by Mars and an asteroid on
the way to the comet. Let's hope that Rosetta has a safe trip!
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