ESA’s Philae comet lander wakes up after seven months of hibernation

The European Space Agency's Philae lander, which has been stranded, cold, and alone somewhere on Comet 67P for the last seven months, has woken up.

Philae went into hibernation mode on November 15 last year. After a very bumpy approach on November 12, the European Space Agency (ESA) had no idea where Philae had finally landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, except that it appeared to be either in a ditch or up against a cliff wall, in a position where its solar panels were unable to generate much electricity. The lander only had enough battery power for about 60 hours of operation, after which it shut down. It managed to send some data back to Earth via the Rosetta orbiter, but it never managed to drill into the comet.

Somewhat incredibly, ESA is now reporting that Philae has woken up out of hibernation. "Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," said Stephan Ulamec, a project manager on the Philae team. "The lander is ready for operations."

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