Rosetta is a space probe designed to rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, perform flybys of two asteroids (2867 Šteins and 21 Lutetia), and carry lander Philae until its landing on 67P. This page records a detailed timeline of this mission.
Launch and cruise phase (2004 - 2014)
16 February 2004 — The Rosetta spacecraft was placed on top of its Ariane 5 rocket at the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou. 26 February 2004 — Countdown was stopped at 20 minutes and 40 seconds before lift off due to strong winds in the upper atmosphere, causing the launch to be rescheduled for the next day. 27 February 2004 — Before launch, a piece of detached foam was discovered, which prompted a round of technical inspections. Launch was rescheduled to very early March. 2 March 2004 — The spacecraft launched at 07:17 GMT. The Ariane 5 placed the upper stage and the Rosetta spacecraft into an eccentric coast orbit (200 x 4000 km). About two hours later, at 09:14 GMT, the upper stage fired to leave the orbit around the Earth and enter heliocentric orbit. Rosetta was released 18 minutes later, and soon afterwards ESA’s Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt established contact with the spacecraft. 3 March 2004 — The S Band communication commenced with Rosetta, using both low- and high-gain antenna configurations. Also, all reaction wheels were in operation, compensating for large disturbances due to outgassing from the space craft, which was expected to last for a few days in the vacuum of space, whilst trapped atmospheric gases escaped. 4 March 2004 — The power subsystem of Rosetta was tested and commissioned. 5 March 2004 — Rosetta X band communications were commissioned. 7-10 March 2004 — The first three instruments (Cosima, CONSERT(Orbiter part) and Osiris) were activated and completed their initial commissioning activities. The CONSERT Orbiter antenna was also deployed. 11 March 2004 — The Rosetta Science Working Team announces that the accuracy of launch made it possible to select two asteroids as targets for a rendezvous fly-by of the probe. "Comets and asteroids are the building blocks of our Earth and the other planets in the Solar System. Rosetta will conduct the most thorough analysis so far of three of these objects," said Prof. David Southwood, Director of ESA's Science Programme in a press release. 12-17 March 2004 — Starting on 12 March, the lander was commissioned. Only one step was rescheduled due to early release of the launch locks during the first mission day. 17-19 March 2004 — The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments were commissioned. An issue arose with the redundant power supply, but did not substantially affect the mission. The spacecraft booms, carrying the RPC MIP (Mutual Impedance Probe) and LAP (Langmuir Probe) instruments were deployed by using the primary systems. 26 March 2004 — Checking out was completed on three instruments: ROSINA, ALICE, and VIRTIS, during commissioning activities. Each activity took two days and was within or ahead of schedule. The High Gain Antenna (HGA) emission pattern was calibrated by performing spiral maneuvers. The radio station at New Norcia was used to measure antenna gain. 30 March 2004 — The RSI (Radio Science Instrument) completed five days of commissioning. 3 April 2004 — The MIRO instrument checked out well after three commissioning passes through more spiral maneuvers, during which the planet Venus was scanned. 4 April 2004 — The Rosetta spacecraft was pointed into its attitude towards Earth, which is to be kept for the remainder of the year. Slight adjustments are planned to avoid having the sunlight hit Rosetta head-on. (Also called "+X" axis). The GIADA instrument was activated and commissioned. 4-9 April 2004 — The last instrument on board Rosetta (MIDAS) was turned on during 4 April and commissioning concluded on 9 April. By this point all science and engineering subsystems had been activated at least once. Use of the radio station at New Norcia was reduced from 11 hours to 7 hours, to allow more time for the Mars Express mission. 10-15 April 2004 — From 10 April to 15 April, checking out procedures were conducted on the Philae lander. This second lander activity focused on the lander's payload. The ALICE instrument was activated again and high voltage operations were executed. Other activities were also performed, including an adjustment of the internal heater system due to the decreasing distance to the Sun. 17 April 2004 — An attempt was made to open the ALICE detector door. However a pyrotechnic fastener designed to open it did not fire. 21 April 2004 — After some investigation, a backup pyro was fired to successfully release the ALICE detector door.