The launch of the most ambitious project ever planned in space has been postponed. The Rosetta mission to orbit a comet and land on its surface will not take off on January 12 as planned.
Avi Blizovsky
The launch of the most ambitious project ever planned in space has been postponed. The Rosetta mission to orbit a comet and land on its surface will not take off on January 12 as planned.
The postponement is as a result of the ongoing investigation into the loss of the European Ariane 5 ESCA rocket on its maiden flight in December. Although Rosetta is supposed to be launched on an older version of the rocket, researchers are not ready to give the mission the green light until they are certain of the cause of the Dec. 11 malfunction.
The hope that whatever the cause that caused the loss of Harian flight 157 three minutes after launch will lead to new components in the super rocket. This would allow Rosetta to take off on a standard rocket.
It will take the Rosetta spacecraft eight years to reach comet Virtanen. In the meantime, the European Space Agency suspended the launch of Flight 158 with the spacecraft on it. In a message published on December 30, the agency said: "The investigative team appointed by Ariane Space, the European Space Agency and the French CNES to investigate the malfunctions on Flight 157 will deliver the final report on Monday, January 6, 2003.
Until then, irreversible tasks related to the Rosetta launch will be suspended - which will affect the delay of the launch by several days beyond the January 12 deadline.
Scientist editor's note, the Rosetta spacecraft has a launch window of about two weeks, if it is not used it will be difficult for it to reach the comet it was destined for.
